The Palatine Village Board has unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Palatine Police Department and its multi-agency task force in its investigation of police handling of the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta murders.
Village Board members were responding to the decision by the Chicago Crime Commission and the Better Government Association to form a 10-member panel to investigate how officials handled the case, in which seven people were slain 3 years ago.
The panel was formed in response to allegations by Brown’s Chicken & Pasta President Frank Portillo, a member of the Chicago Crime Commission, that Palatine police and the task force were entangled in personality clashes and that they have mishandled the investigation.
But village officials said the two watchdog groups have no legal or procedural standing to investigate anything within the village, and that the panel members should leave the task force and Police Department alone so officials can concentrate on solving the crime.
“I’m concerned that, should these civic groups wish to do any, `investigation,’ that it’s going to take a great deal of our staff time of the Police Department, the investigators, the attorneys, who knows,” said Trustee Keith Harris.
