In recent years, the Cook County Sheriff’s office has been known for nothing so much as its uncanny ability to tar the image of whoever is running it.
Sheriff Richard Elrod was dumped by voters in 1986 because he tolerated corrupt underlings and had no answer for the rampant incompetence in his administration.
Four years later it was Sheriff James O’Grady’s turn to be shown the door. The corruption and crass politicking in his office was too much for voters to stomach.
And now, you have to wonder if it is Sheriff Michael Sheahan’s turn.
Sheahan’s image as a clean, straight-arrow politician helped him to defeat O’Grady in 1990. And Sheahan deserved credit for cleaning house. But the house is looking mighty filthy right now.
Three sheriff’s officers are on trial for allegedly beating an inmate to death. Last year, the Cook County Board paid $6.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit on behalf of 2,600 female inmates who were subjected to unauthorized strip searches. One deputy faces trial on charges of official misconduct and obstruction of justice connected to the death of a man at a wedding brawl in Countryside.
Every law enforcement agency is bound to have some rogues. But the recent performance of the department under Sheahan suggests a problem that is deeper and broader. The latest evidence comes from an investigation by Tribune reporters Robert Becker and Todd Lighty, based on confidential reports from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, which represents the sheriff’s department in legal matters. Since 1998, lawyers working for State’s Atty. Dick Devine have advised settling some 35 lawsuits accusing sheriff’s officers of brutality. Thirty-two of them ultimately were settled, at a price of $1.5 million.
Why? Because the evidence provided by the accusers was convincing enough to suggest they might well prevail in court. In many cases, it emerged that employees had fabricated evidence, lost documents, or given false testimony.
The department says the lawyers just didn’t want to incur the expense of a trial. But Devine’s office disagrees. “We would say that, in general, we recommend a settlement when the evidence is clearly in favor of the plaintiff,” explained spokesman John Gorman.
In some cases, it’s obvious what he means. A 66-year-old man who answered the door to his home was confronted by two plainclothes deputies trying to serve an arrest warrant on his son, and ended up with six broken ribs. The deputies denied hitting the retired state tax agent and said he put up “ferocious resistance”–but he was acquitted of all charges. The state’s attorney’s report, noting “the lack of motive for the plaintiff to knowingly attack law enforcement officers,” urged that the suit be settled–which it was, for $90,000.
Sheahan defends the department by saying that jail personnel work under stressful, dangerous conditions, that more than 100 jail officers are injured each year by inmates, and that most officers do their jobs well. He’s certainly right, but that doesn’t justify complacency. In many of the cases in which sheriff’s personnel were plausibly charged with brutality, the department didn’t even bother to investigate. Though 39 deputies have been suspended for excessive force, only two were out for more than a month.
No one was punished for the beating of a female jail visitor who won a $5 million verdict in federal court. Nor was anyone disciplined in a reported mass beating of inmates in 1993.
Sheahan has to spend less time defending thuggery in his office and more time getting rid of it.
