A Wisconsin district attorney, drawing what some legal experts called a double standard between ordinary citizens and public officials, on Thursday said he will give special consideration to six members of the Glenview Police Department arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana.
The attorney defended his decision to delay filing marijuana possession charges because the careers of the police employees hang in the balance.
“The consequences on these people’s lives are clearly higher than for anyone else,” Assistant Milwaukee County District Atty. Tom McAdams said in explaining why he will take up to two more weeks before deciding whether to pursue the case. “This is a special case.”
But others asserted that the prosecutor was applying a curious standard.
“While he may be trying to avoid an unjust result, I would expect a professional law-enforcement official to be more eager to remove lawbreakers from police forces than to protect them,” said Gerald Nora, a former chief of the special prosecutions unit in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Last Friday night, a Glenview detective, a patrol officer and four civilian employees of the north suburban police department, all off-duty, were arrested by Milwaukee police at the city’s SummerFest celebration after the arresting officer said he witnessed the group passing around a marijuana cigarette while sitting at the lakeshore on Harbor Drive. In addition, a small amount of a substance that later tested positive as being marijuana was confiscated from one of those arrested, according to Milwaukee police and prosecutors.
Possession of a controlled substance is a criminal misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $1,000 and a 6-month jail term.
The arrests were among more than 100 similar cases during the week in which visitors to SummerFest were taken into custody on suspicion of possessing cannabis, police said. In nearly all the cases, formal charges were filed, they added.
McAdams said in a telephone interview Thursday that he will wait for further laboratory testing before deciding whether to sign a complaint against the Glenview group.
“Am I being careful and cautious? Yes, definitely,” McAdams said. “I want conclusive testing by the crime lab. The initial screening by the police is not enough to determine proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In Cook County, the state’s attorney’s office operates a public integrity unit to ensure that public officials do not receive special consideration-or wield clout-when arrested for breaking the law, said spokeswoman Suzanne Rollier.
“I don’t think you’ll find the same situation (that took place in Milwaukee) occurring here,” Rollier said, adding that the public integrity unit investigates each time a public official or employee is arrested.
Legal experts acknowledged that some prosecutors may feel uncomfortable bringing charges against a fellow law-enforcement official.
“Ninety-nine days out of 100 these guys behave straight as an arrow,” said a former assistant state’s attorney in Cook County who asked not to be identified.
“There’s a deep-seated resistance to go ahead with charges because the cops involved will frequently lose their pension rights as well as their job, and they’ll never land another job in law enforcement.”
Nora, a former deputy state’s attorney now in private practice, said prosecutors detest these kinds of Catch-22 cases.
“It might be that he cannot achieve justice here,” Nora said. “He can’t easily let these people off, knowing that they are police officers. But if he does decide to go after them, the cases will consume a lot of his department’s time and money, and hurt the officers too.”
Glenview Police Chief David Kelly has ordered an internal investigation.
“We’re talking about an alleged violation of the law, and it has to be handled straight down the middle,” Kelly said.
