A newly hired Markham police officer was sentenced to 10 days in jail and a year of court probation Wednesday for making sexual advances toward a 16-year-old girl.
Cecil Ratliffe, 30, of Markham was convicted on two counts of misdemeanor battery on Jan. 11 for his actions while working as a physical education teacher at Crete-Monee High School.
A teacher at the school for five years, Ratliffe was fired last April after being accused of pushing himself against the girl`s body and rubbing her buttocks with his hands, said Will County`s Chief Felony Prosecutor Jeff Tomczak.
Despite the conviction, Markham`s Police and Fire Commission approved hiring Ratliffe Jan. 25. The town has no policy against employing someone who has been charged with a misdemeanor, Mayor Evans Miller said.
”The man hasn`t killed anybody, and he hasn`t raped anybody, so why should his wrists be slashed,” Miller said. Racism played a role in Ratliffe`s conviction, he said.
”The school board was white, the victim was white, it happened in an all-white community and when he got to court, the jury was white and the judge was white,” said Miller, who has known Ratliffe for almost 30 years. Both Ratliffe and Miller are blacks.
Ratliffe`s attorney, William O`Neal, agreed, saying: ”I don`t believe the whole incident would have happened if both people had been white or both people had been black.”
Tomczak maintained that the trial was fair.
