Hmm...Some sterotypes there. Poor performing officers have a tough time in large departments......A lousy reference for a poor performance will never get you into a training position.
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The Tribune found a host of officers, particularly high-ranking ones, with controversial records.
Deputy Chief Michael Neal
Fired in 2003 after 24 disciplinary incidents, he was rehired when his friend Eric Kellogg was elected mayor. Within his first year back, he was written up for sleeping in his patrol car while manning a roadblock and spending shifts loafing or needlessly racing around town, records show. The chief at that time wanted to fire him, but the mayor made Neal his bodyguard. He was l
ater promoted to oversee investigations and internal affairs. ......
Officer Marcus Patterson
Charged by his former police employer, Bolingbrook, with misdemeanor theft and assault, Patterson beat the charges in court and started with Harvey. He rose to become the department's top ethics officer, despite records showing a girlfriend in Romeoville accused him of abuse and a woman in a Posen bar accused him of spying on her in a bathroom. He avoided charges then, as well as on two traffic stops in Midlothian where an officer said he suspected him of drunken driving and reported finding open alcohol. The first time the officer let Patterson go. The second time the officer gave him a $40 ticket for expired plates. (To view the squad car video, go to chicagotribune.com/duivideo) Patterson later did get demoted for causing a crash in a Harvey car with alcohol in his system, records show, but was
given a commendation last year — before another girlfriend accused him in civil court of abuse.
Det. Jeff Crocker
Crocker's arrest of an elderly PACE bus driver in 2009 resulted in no charges against the driver — who was injured in the arrest — and cost Harvey nearly $180,000 to settle the driver's lawsuit, records show. As part of the suit, the transit agency demanded Harvey reimburse it for $130,000 in workers compensation paid the driver as a result of Crocker's "unprovoked physical assault." He also had two orders of protection against him after he allegedly punched his girlfriend and later allegedly threatened to burn her house down, records show. He was not charged.
Harvey gave him a service commendation last year.
Deputy Chief Jason Banks
In December 2004 authorities charged Banks — then a retail worker — with domestic battery for allegedly repeatedly punching his girlfriend. The case was dropped. Less than a year later, the girlfriend told police that Banks drove her and their child to a forest preserve in Orland Park, repeatedly punched her and told her: "If you don't conform to what I want, you and I will die. I'll stab the hell out of you. If I can't have you, no one can," according to records. The next morning, she said she heard noises outside her basement window and saw Banks dressed in all black. He tried to push his way in but left after she called to others inside her home, she told police. He was charged with criminal trespass, but the case was dropped. Banks joined Harvey in 2009. Last year, he was
given a service commendation and became a deputy chief.
Commander Shane Gordan
Gordan joined the force in 2000 despite a misdemeanor gun conviction — he later testified it was expunged — and rose to become a sergeant. He then sued Harvey, claiming he was passed over for promotion because he was white. The suburb promoted him to head the detective bureau and then spent $600,000 in settlements and legal fees in suits alleging he harassed or brutalized three people. One was a paralyzed man who said he was trying to videotape Gordan inappropriately searching a car. An appeals court threw out the paraplegic man's conviction for resisting arrest after a judge criticized Gordan for throwing the man out of his wheelchair. Harvey declined to release records showing if Gordan was disciplined for any incidents.
Harvey gave him a service commendation last year....
Former Cmdr. Merritt Gentry
Gentry was fired by a previous mayor, accused of repeated misconduct, including failing to turn over evidence in a case in which a gang member was accused of shooting a Harvey cop. Gentry was rehired in 2003 after campaigning for Eric Kellogg. He was
promoted to commander of the detectives division, but a few years later faced questions about testimony in the police shooting. Gentry initially gave testimony that helped a Vice Lord gang member's defense, but later recanted, claiming he lied earlier to spite an officer. That led prosecutors to raise questions about his relationship with the Vice Lords.
In a previous incident, a suspect claimed that during the interrogation Gentry ripped open his shirt, exposing tattoos matching those typically worn by Vice Lords, and said: "You guys killed one of us. He was a Vice Lord." Gentry denied that, denied he was a Vice Lord and said his tattoos — of a cane and the letter L — were innocently coincidental to the cane and letter L's used by the gang. A judge didn't believe it, threw out the suspect's confession and chastised Harvey for "something inappropriate happening" at the department, noting police "can't serve two masters." Harvey placed Gentry on paid leave and moved to fire him a year later. He resigned.
Former Det. Manuel Escalante Sr.
A federal jury concluded Escalante shot an unarmed teen in the back in 1997 and then planted a gun in an effort to frame the teen and cover up the improper shooting. He was accused of coercing a dying widow to leave her estate to Escalante and his wife. He settled that case with the widow's family but soon was sued by the attorney general. For $20,000, he had allowed the widow's 5-acre wooded lot to be turned into an illegal landfill, according to the suit, piled with construction debris mixed with petroleum waste. The case dragged on until Escalante agreed to pay a $2,000 fine. The state said it agreed to the sum because Escalante had declared bankruptcy.
Escalante rose to become a detective. The chief testified last year Escalante was suspended for 30 days for failing to properly investigate cases assigned to him. Escalante left the force in May, for medical reasons."
Some Harvey police have controversial records - Chicago Tribune
