The Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards has opened an investigation into allegations that detectives forced a man to confess to a fatal beating that occurred when he was in jail, officials said Thursday.
OPS officials also will investigate claims by three of the five other defendants in the case that they, too, were mistreated during questioning by Grand Central Area Sgt. Michael Patton and Detective Anthony Carothers.
Gayle Shines, the administrator in charge of OPS, said her investigators started the inquiry after learning of the allegations Wednesday. The Tribune published a story about the case Wednesday.
None of the alleged victims filed complaints with the office, she said.
“I’m glad the police department is going to examine the conduct of the detectives in interrogating suspects,” said Bryan D. Schultz, an attorney for Mario Hayes, whose allegations sparked the investigation.
Hayes, 19, of the city’s West Side, is one of six teenagers who confessed to the Oct. 25, 1996, beating of Alexander Walker. The 40-year-old Walker died three days later of head injuries.
But even though Hayes confessed, Cook County Jail records show he was being held from Oct. 24, 1996, one day before Walker was attacked, to Oct. 28, 1996. Hayes, according to records, had been jailed on a drug charge.
Hayes and three of the other defendants have charged that Patton and Carothers hit and otherwise mistreated them to obtain their confessions.
At a hearing Wednesday– which Shines had an investigator monitor–Judge Fred Suria of Cook County Criminal Court refused to set bond for Hayes. Assistant State’s Atty. John Kirby, who is prosecuting the case, charged that the jail records were inaccurate and incomplete, although two jail officials testified that the records were accurate.
Supervisors at the Grand Central Area headquarters, where Patton and Carothers are assigned, also defended the two officers, saying that those confessions were obtained while a half-dozen prosecutors evaluated the case.
Shines said she told Police Supt. Terry Hillard of the inquiry Thursday. A department spokesman, Officer Pat Camden, said officials routinely initiate investigations when they learn about such allegations of wrongdoing.
Besides Hayes, police also arrested Hayes’ twin brother, Marcus, as well as Matthew Abston, 17; Gene Profit, 19; Gregory Blakley, 18; and Clifton Shelton, 21, in the beating.
All were charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
