Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Lawsuits accuse Chicago cop of gay harassment, false arrests
04.03.2009 5:32pm EDT
(Chicago, Illinois) A Chicago police officer is facing seven civil lawsuits accusing him of making false drunk driving arrests, using excessive force and harassing gays and lesbians.
Four of the suits against officer Richard Fiorito were filed this week, The Chicago Tribune reported. The three others were filed in February.Attorney Jon Erickson told The Tribune that Fiorito made up DUI charges in a scheme to earn extra overtime pay.
Last year, the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving honored Fiorito for making 313 DUI arrests between Jan. 1, 2007, and June 6, 2008.
Two of the charges were dropped by prosecutors. A jury found a third person not guilty of a DUI charge and in a fourth a judge dismissed a DUI charge, saying Fiorito had no grounds to arrest the plaintiff.
The Tribune reported that the other charges are under review by the prosecutors office and that the city’s Independent Police Review Authority is looking into complaints Fiorito used excessive force and engaged in bias-based verbal abuse.
In one of the lawsuits, filed against Fiorito, the officer is alleged to have grabbed Shawn Rauch by the throat in the police station, shoved him against a wall and called him a slur for gay.
Fiorito has not commented on the lawsuits or the internal investigation.
It’s good they that are protective of the GLBT community.
Frankly I am surprised that something like this is going on in the Chicago PD. Although I do know a few out policemen they are generally treated as less than normal policemen. Various incidents have taken place in the past that amount to harassment (nothing physical). Its more of a games being played on gay policemen in the locker room.
I do know one watch commander that is gay (He may have retired by now I do not know). He was extremely supportive of other gay policemen. I would hesitate to say that homophobia is rampant in the CPD but there is an unspoken rule that to be gay is wrong. I also know one policeman that is in the lets say administrative side and he is deeply closeted. I also know that one policemen went to the extreme of marrying a woman so he wouldn’t be found out.
Its going to take years of effort by gay policemen to get rid of the homophobia that seems to pervade the CPD.
There are out CPD personnel that do march in the yearly pride parade they are a great example of being out in the CPD.
He’s currently facing seven lawsuits, and was congratulated by MADD for 313 DIU arrests in an 18-month period. So does anybody know how many of his cases will be reviewed? The wording of the article seems to suggest that four of the 313 cases have already been tossed. You have to wonder just how many people and how much time it’ll take to review every DUI case. Then how many other arrests did he make which have already come back to be questionable? Makes me wonder where his supervision was.
I had an experience withthe Chicago Police many years ago. They falsified charges and were verbally abusive!
I paid the fine and was eventually released from the Cook County jail.
They had NO idea that I was gay, yet I was treated poorly and unfairly; this may just be a big part of how this Police Dept. is!
I agree with DeAnimator, there are many nice police officers out there who are, or at least pretend to be tolerant toward our community and would help us out in a time of need. However this Fiorito guy deserves to be put in federal prison for what he’s done. You can’t just go around falsely arresting folks for this or that and using anti-gay slurs is NEVER appropriate for an officer to use.
Even though Chicago has a pretty dirty police force, there are a lot of great cops out there who ARE tolerant and protective of the queer community. Thanks especially to the Chicago cop a few years ago who got out of his car to chase off and arrest Wrigleyville a**holes who were probably going to beat the crap out of me. Unfortunately, all cops are not great civil servants and that’s a shame.