Allegations of a Park Ridge police “cover-up,” investigated by prosecutors and the FBI, were revealed in a recent state Appellate Court ruling reinstating charges against a commander accused of brutally beating two teenage suspects.
Claims of a cover-up and perjury within the Police Department — from a former police chief to patrol officers — are included in the Illinois Appellate Court’s Nov. 21 ruling that Cmdr. Jason Leavitt must face charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct, which were dismissed by a lower court two years ago.
The appellate decision contains testimony and other court statements made by Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney John Mahoney that members of the Police Department conspired to hide events that occurred on Oct. 28, 2006. On that date, Leavitt was accused of repeatedly punching and kicking two 15-year-old boys after the rear window of his personal vehicle was broken by a projectile as he drove past Town of Maine Cemetery about 2 a.m.
“There’s been a cover-up launched in the Park Ridge Police Department from the then-chief [Jeff Caudill], all the way down to the watch commander and the acting chief of the Park Ridge Police Department,” Mahoney told a presiding judge during an ex parte hearing to seal the indictment of Leavitt. Caudill’s name is replaced with asterisks in the ruling.
Leavitt was arraigned in November 2010, more than one year after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which was investigating him, had secured an indictment. A Cook County Circuit Court judge dismissed the charges in 2012 after Leavitt’s attorney argued that an indictment may not be sealed for such a long period of time while prosecutors attempt to build a stronger case.
The appellate court, in its recent ruling, disagreed.
“In conclusion, we find the prosecution here was timely commenced when the indictment was found within the three-year statute of limitations period and the sealing had no effect on the statute of limitations,” the court wrote. “Moreover, the court did not abuse its discretion in sealing the indictment pursuant to section 112-6(b) of the grand jury statute.”
In 2009, the State’s Attorney’s Office launched an investigation into reported misconduct within the Park Ridge Police Department and later enlisted the FBI for assistance.
“It’s been [a] very condensed, condensed investigation,” Mahoney said during the ex parte hearing. “We have had to move as quickly as possible. We brought this in house. We’ve had our own investigators doing it, but we’re partnering up with the FBI as well, and the investigation is ongoing into the charges of perjury, subornation of perjury, obstructing justice and conspiracy to commit all of those offenses.”
Despite the investigation reportedly involving several members of the Police Department, no one but Leavitt has been charged with a crime.
Of the five officers listed in the Oct. 28, 2006, incident report as witnesses, only Leavitt and one other officer are now members of the department.
Current Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski, who was hired by the city in July 2009 following the early retirement of Chief Caudill, said he has had “no involvement” in the state’s attorney’s investigation and was asked by investigators not to conduct his own internal probe of the allegations until their case was concluded.
“They never said their investigation had concluded,” Kaminski said Nov. 26.
“We need to find the truth,” he added. “We need to find out what happened, and whatever the outcome is, people need to be held accountable for whatever actions they took. We owe that to this community and to this department.”
Kaminski said he has received no report on the state’s attorney’s findings. He called the allegations against the department and Leavitt “a dark cloud hanging over this department for the five years I’ve been here. I hope it gets resolved. I don’t think we can move forward as a department until this gets resolved.”
Caudill, who was offered economic incentives to retire in March 2008, declined to comment on the claims made by Mahoney and then hung up his phone on a Park Ridge Herald-Advocate reporter. Former acting Police Chief Tom Swoboda, who retired in 2010, could not be reached for comment.
According to the Appellate Court ruling, once the FBI joined the state’s attorney’s investigation of the department, the agency learned that attorney and former Park Ridge Police Officer Michael Kujawa, who represented the city in a civil suit filed by one of the alleged beating victims, held a 2007 meeting with all members of the Police Department who worked the night of Oct. 28, 2006.
“According to ASA Mahoney’s testimony, Kujawa looked at everyone in the room and said, ‘Leavitt says he never touched the kid,’” the ruling said. “ASA Mahoney further stated Kujawa said, ‘Anybody got anything different to say’ or words to that effect.”
It goes on to state that Mahoney described the meeting as “kind of intimidating, and that was the beginning of the conspiracy.”
On Nov. 25, Kujawa disputed those claims.
“I’m unaware of any conspiracy or any cover-up as [Mahoney] described here,” he said. “As a general rule — and this is not specific to this case — we always meet with our clients when a lawsuit is filed.”
He added: “The idea that we intimidated or told anybody what to say at any point in time is ridiculous.”
Kujawa said he could not comment on specifics of the meeting, citing attorney-client privilege.
Further details of the the alleged cover-up within the Park Ridge Police Department are not included in the Appellate Court’s ruling.
Mahoney, supervisor of the State’s Attorney’s Office of Public Corruption and Financial Crimes Unit, who was recently elected judge of the 4th Cook County Subcircuit, could not be reached for comment. Sally Daly, spokeswoman for the State’s Attorney’s Office, also could not be reached for comment.
Dana McNeal, an FBI spokeswoman, said she could not comment on the investigation, as the State’s Attorney’s Office is the lead agency.
In 2009, the city of Park Ridge settled a civil lawsuit filed by one of the alleged battery victims for $185,000.
One year earlier, after receiving complaints from citizens about the conduct of some police officers, the Park Ridge City Council authorized an audit of the department, which was conducted by prominent Chicago attorney Terry Ekl.
Even though Ekl’s investigation of the department occurred after the civil suit was filed, the audit report does not make reference to the battery allegations contained within the suit.
In his report, Ekl concluded there was “no credible evidence of corruption or systemic dishonesty within the department,” though he noted there was a “lack of accountability for misconduct committed by officers” and “serious internal problems,” ranging from personal conflicts between officers to unhappiness with the direction of the department and how the law is applied to residents as opposed to non-residents.
Ekl also recommended improved training in how officers handle juveniles. A claim that an officer pulled a gun on an unarmed teenage boy in 2005 was included in the audit report.