A part-time Rosemont police officer was fired Friday after Park Ridge police charged him with robbery, intimidation and two counts of official misconduct related to a holdup this week outside a Park Ridge grocery store.
Vinni Dymon, 32, of the 200 block of Acorn Drive, Streamwood, was freed on $20,000 bond Friday morning after appearing in Cook County Circuit Court in Skokie on four felony charges.
A second suspect, a 19-year veteran of the Rosemont Police Department, was with Dymon during the incident Monday in a Dominick’s parking lot, officials said. Park Ridge police are still investigating, but the officer was released without being charged. He has been placed on administrative leave until the criminal investigation is complete, said Rosemont Police Lt. Kieran Mackey.
Dymon, who began working as an auxiliary officer for Rosemont police in February 2001, admitted that on Monday evening he left an unmarked Rosemont squad car and approached a 30-year-old Chicago woman as she sat in her car in the Dominick’s lot, 1900 S. Cumberland Ave., officials said.
The woman told police she had arranged to meet a female acquaintance in the parking lot to lend her an undisclosed amount of money, officials said.
Dymon, who had a badge and 9mm gun on his belt, opened the woman’s door, identified himself as a police officer and ordered her to hand over her purse, officials said.
“He admitted to taking money from her purse after showing her a badge,” said Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. “He told police that he kept the victim’s ID and told her she would get it back if she returned the next day with $5,000.”
The woman said Dymon, who has no criminal record, also demanded a “gun and drugs,” Lawrence said.
Dymon and the second officer had no legitimate reason to be conducting police business in Park Ridge, Lawrence said.
Rosemont police said they plan to investigate whether both officers violated department rules.
Auxiliary police officers get a uniform, badge and a department identification card. But while off-duty, they have no more authority than any other citizen, Mackey said. Dymon, who also holds a state license that allows him to work for private security firms, was not authorized by the Police Department to carry a weapon, Mackey said.
Dymon is scheduled to be in court Nov. 20.
