January 29, 2008
Police to Review Case of Officer Who Beat Man in Wheelchair
Windy City A police force officer suspended after an infirmary surveillance photographic camera recorded him whipping a manacled man fettered to a wheelchair is dued back to do work in April, but the city’s new police overseer says he plans to reexamine the instance.
Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, who formally takes business office Feb. 1, plans to occupy a “hard, close look” at using up further action against Officer William J. Cozzi, police spokeswoman Monique Bond stated the Chicago Sun-Times for a narrative published Monday.
Bond named the incident “a care” for Weis, an FBI veteran Chosen to deliver the goods former Superintendent Phil Cline, who proclaimed his retreat last twelvemonth amid allegements of undue force, ginmill brawls affecting off-duty officers and a dirt in a dissolved gang and drug unit of measurement.
Weis has consecrated to check down on misconduct.
Cozzi, 50, pleadedded guilty last twelvemonth to violation battery in the 2005 incident.
Cozzi is understood shackling Miles’ leg to the wheelchair, then affecting Miles about 10 multiplication. Cook County public prosecutors have emphasised Cozzi smitten Miles with a small wand.
Miles was in the infirmary for a twinge wound to the articulatio humeri. Authorities say he was drunk, uncooperative with the hospital’s staff and verbally abusive to officers.
Miles’ lawyer, Timothy Whiting, named Miles “harmless” and articulated he requisite stitches after being hit. Whiting’s jurisprudence firm has found a USD 125,000 colony from the urban center in the example.
Cozzi’s lawyer, William Fahy, informated the military officer is “highly remorseful of his conduct.”
“The Police Board heard all the grounds and launched him shamefaced of his conduct,” Fahy told. “They considered his a lot of, a lot of geezerhood as a police force officer. Based on the grounds, they made the right call. He merits a second chance.”