In the courtroom, former Cicero Police Officer James DiSantis didn’t show a lot of emotion Tuesday when a federal jury convicted him of violating a man’s civil rights by beating him in a traffic stop in 2003.
But as he waited later with his family by an elevator bank, he broke down into loud sobs. Free on bond, he faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 6.
“Police abuse of citizens will not be tolerated,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Sergio Acosta said after the verdict.
DiSantis, 42, of Riverside was cleared of two other civil rights abuse allegations that he beat a homeless woman and struck a teenage wading-pool attendant.
The jury foreman said the decision came down to believing the testimony of Hector Montes, a Cicero cook who was involved in the traffic stop.
“Everybody agreed on Montes,” jury foreman Fazil Saiyed of Gurnee said in a telephone interview. “Jurors wanted to believe [DiSantis], but there seemed to be too many instances of similar behavior.”
Less convincing were the other two allegations — that DiSantis beat Jennifer Pine, a homeless woman, and that he struck Danny Cano, then a 19-year-old wading-pool attendant, Saiyed said. Montes, Pine and Cano all testified in the week-long trial.
The panel of six men and six women deliberated for 6 1/2 hours.
Montes told jurors that on the evening of Sept. 3, 2003, he was driving home from work when he saw DiSantis hitting a woman he identified in court as Pine. Montes and his brother returned to the scene on Central Avenue with a video camera — a decision Montes believed enraged DiSantis.
He told jurors the officer smashed the camera against his face and head, grabbed his genitals and threatened to shoot him and his brother. “He said I was trying to burn a police officer,” a soft-spoken Montes told jurors last week. “I told him, ‘Why are you so mean?’
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DiSantis, a 20-year veteran of the Cicero Police Department who was then deputy superintendent, took the stand and insisted that he never beat anyone.Pine testified that DiSantis “grabbed her by the hair” and backhanded her “six or seven times.” She told jurors the beating was in retaliation for an earlier incident in which DiSantis allegedly offered her $200 to perform a sex act on him. Pine, an admitted former heroin user and petty thief, testified DiSantis was angry that she spurned the offer.
Saiyed said jurors found it troubling that one of the men in Pine’s car that evening denied the abuse ever happened.
Jurors also weren’t convinced that DiSantis roughed up Cano. Cano, now 24, testified that he insisted DiSantis needed to buy a pass before his child could use a wading pool in Cicero in 2002. Cano’s troubled past — he was accused of raping a 15-year-old and spent two years in prison — was a factor, Saiyed said.
Neither DiSantis nor his defense attorney, Alexander Salerno, could be reached for comment.
As DiSantis left the courtroom with family and supporters, his wife, Megan, sarcastically blew a kiss to one of the FBI agents.
DiSantis was stripped of his badge and placed on paid leave in January 2005 after federal authorities informed town officials that an indictment against him was imminent. When the indictment didn’t materialize, he was reinstated a few months later after Larry Dominick’s election as town president brought a new police chief and town attorney. DiSantis was put on leave again in the fall of 2006 after the federal charges were filed.
Dan Proft, Cicero town spokesman, said in a statement that Tuesday’s verdict was “not a reflection on the 140 Cicero police officers who do protect and serve with honor.”
Joseph DeKiel and William Peslak, also former Cicero police officers indicted at the same time as DiSantis, pleaded guilty to lesser charges earlier this month.
Each faces up to a year in federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for later this year.
In 2005, the Cicero Town Board settled a lawsuit filed against DiSantis in connection with the alleged beatings.
The agreement paid $40,000 to Hector Montes and his brother, Richard; and $15,000 to Pine, one of the men in the car with her and the Chicago law firm representing them.
The agreement included the stipulation that neither the town nor DiSantis admitted to any wrongdoing.
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solkon@tribune.com
