Moving quickly in a controversial and politically sensitive case, Chicago Police Supt. Matt Rodriguez on Tuesday suspended the two officers involved in the alleged beating of Jeremiah Mearday and sought to have them both fired.
Rodriguez’s move against Officers James Comito and Matthew Thiel of the Grand Central District came with almost unheard of swiftness; it was just 25 days ago that the alleged incident occurred, and departmental investigations usually take months, if not years.
But the Mearday case has been different from the beginning, attracting attention and protests across the community, prompting an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and putting Rodriguez on the defensive.
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Just last week, Rodriguez suspended Comito and another Grand Central District officer, John Murphy, and is seeking their firing in connection with an unrelated incident in April.
“Yes, we moved quickly. But I don’t think the public would have any other expectation,” said Kevin P. Morison, a police spokesman. “We move as swiftly as we can given the availability of the evidence and the witnesses.
“In this case,” he added, “they were readily available. So we moved.”
Veteran observers of the police discipline process and lawyers who deal with it regularly, however, contend the Mearday case has been unusual–in part because it resulted in a recommendation that the officers be fired.
Of the more than 3,200 misconduct investigations completed in 1996 by the Office of Professional Standards, fewer than two dozen resulted in a recommendation for firing, according to department figures.
But it is the speed of the case that seems remarkable. G. Flint Taylor, an attorney at the People’s Law Office, agreed that the charges against Comito and Thiel came quickly, but he said that should be applauded, as well as encouraged.
He said that internal investigations often are not finished until after a lawsuit has been settled. Then, he said, the results usually are unsatisfying.
“This happening in a few weeks the way it has shows just what they can do when they take something seriously with regard to police brutality,” Taylor said.
Paul Geiger, the attorney for Comito and Thiel, said that cases move with such speed only when an officer has committed a crime and is arrested. He accused Rodriguez of trying to create a disciplinary history against Comito by filing departmental charges in the April case and said that Rodriguez was simply answering the community’s protests by hurrying the Mearday investigation.
“The only time they move this fast is if a police officer is accused of murdering somebody,” said Geiger, “and even then they don’t move that fast.”
But Michael G. Mahoney, a lawyer for Mearday, suggested the speed was a byproduct of an overwhelming set of facts–including statements from witnesses–and public pressure.
“It might be unusual for the city to act so quickly on something like this, but when the facts are so lopsided it seems inevitable,” said Mahoney.
Those facts, according to the documents the department filed against Comito and Thiel, echo much of what the 18-year-old Mearday has been saying since the alleged attack occurred on Sept. 26 in the 1300 block of North Pulaski Road.
Comito, 29, and Thiel, 27, allegedly struck Mearday in the face and head with a flashlight, kicked him in the head and body, then later submitted false reports to officials about the altercation, according to the departmental charges.
Thiel, according to the charges, also verbally abused Mearday.
Comito was charged with violating three rules, while Thiel was charged with violating five. Comito could not be reached Tuesday evening, and Thiel declined to comment.
Geiger has said repeatedly that the officers contend Mearday fought them. The charges against Mearday–two counts each of battery and resisting a police officer–still stand, although Mahoney said he expects they will soon be dropped.
Comito and Murphy were charged with two rules violations in connection with the April 20 incident–a case that department sources predict will be more difficult to prove. Indeed, the sources say it is like the hundreds of cases that Office of Professional Standards investigators are unable to resolve every year.
“It’s your classic OPS case,” said one source familiar with both cases. “The victim says one thing. The police say the complete opposite.”
According to the departmental charges, Comito and Murphy, 26, answered a burglary call in the 4800 block of West North Avenue at around 10 p.m. While trying to arrest Dearyal Harvey, 36, who was found inside the building, the officers allegedly kicked him in his head and body.
The officers dispute the allegations. But unlike the Mearday case, the sources say, there are no witnesses to the incident.
Mearday’s father, Lee Carter, said that he was surprised and pleased the superintendent took action. He vowed to push Rodriguez until the case played out.
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“I applaud him for taking the first step, but that’s just the beginning. I want these guys to go to jail,” said Carter, who has pushed his son’s case in the media and with community leaders.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that if we hadn’t made the noise we’ve been making, this whole thing would have been swept under the rug like so many other brutality complaints.”