North Chicago pays $40,000 over police dog attack

Officer is fired

Retired administrator says she warned that excessive force could get 'out of control'

July 29, 2012 | By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-29/news/ct-met-north-chicago-police-update-20120729_1_walter-wrather-police-dog-darrin-hanna

North Chicago has fired a police officer and paid $40,000 to settle a complaint that he allowed a police dog to bite a fleeing suspect repeatedly and break his leg.

The beleaguered department has also been sued over an incident caught on video in which an officer appears to punch a docile suspect in a police lockup.

Compounding the controversy, a high-ranking retired officer said she warned last year that excessive force was "getting out of control" but was ignored.

Those are among the latest developments since the death of Darrin Hanna in November unleashed a spate of police brutality accusations, protests and investigations in North Chicago.

Hanna died a week after he was arrested by officers responding to a call that he had battered his pregnant girlfriend. The Lake County coroner attributed Hanna's death in part to being beaten and shocked with a Taser by officers, but also to the 45-year-old's health problems and drug abuse.

The arrest that led to the latest firing occurred in April 2011, when Walter Wrather, then 23, was allegedly driving without a license and Officer William Bogdala tried to stop him. Wrather fled at high speeds but eventually abandoned his car and ran into a warehouse district, where Bogdala commanded his police dog to chase and bite Wrather, city attorney Chuck Smith said.

Wrather contends Bogdala let the dog hold on for some time and bite him repeatedly, fracturing a bone in Wrather's calf. Police photos of the bites show several deep puncture wounds.

Wrather's attorney, Muriel Collison, said witnesses reported that Bogdala posted a picture of the wound on his Facebook account, with a message warning against running from police. Bogdala denied doing that, records show, but city officials concluded that he had violated the city's social media policy.

Bogdala was the subject of other complaints of excessive force, including one from a woman who said he broke her eye socket, and one from a man who said he also required medical intervention after an encounter with the officer, Smith said. Also, Bogdala pulled a gun on another motorist in an off-duty altercation in Gurnee in 2010, Smith said.

The attorney said that in 2008, Bogdala had signed a "last chance" agreement with the city, putting him on probation and warning that another incident would result in his dismissal.

Smith called the $40,000 payment to Wrather "fair" given the trauma he suffered. Wrather was convicted and served jail time for the incident.

Collison said Bogdala, who was dismissed on June 29, was given too many chances. "This should never have happened," she said of his run-in with Wrather.

Reached Friday, Bogdala said he would "love to" comment but deferred to his Fraternal Order of Police attorney, who did not return phone calls.

Last week, Collison filed a new suit against the city on behalf of Paul Smith, a Waukegan man who, according to video taken inside the local police lockup in 2010, was punched in the back of the head, choked and slammed against a wall by an officer, despite no obvious signs of resistance. The officer, Emir King, was suspended without pay after the video became public earlier this year.

Collison also released a sworn statement by a former high-ranking officer, provided as part of the litigation against the city, that Collison said helps substantiate what she claims is a pattern of police brutality in North Chicago.

Crystal Phillips, the former No. 2 in command at the department as operations commander, retired last July.

In the statement, Phillips said the department typically got three to four complaints a week about alleged excessive force and verbal abuse by police.

She identified several officers who she said were the subject of a lot of complaints. She also said she warned the department not to let Bogdala become a canine officer.

She said she raised concerns with Chief Michael Newsome, but he never took action. Newsome resigned in February.

"Couple of times I told him that he needed to start doing some discipline because if he didn't, it was going to get out of control," she said. "They were going to get to the point where they were going to get too aggressive with the citizens to the point where something serious was going to happen."

Phillips could not be reached for additional comment.

Attorney Laura Scarry, who represents the seven officers who have been sued in connection with the Hanna case, questioned Phillips' credibility, noting that much of what she said was based on hearsay from other officers and that Phillips was not cross-examined.

"She was giving opinions on issues that she has no personal knowledge of," Scarry said.

After Hanna's death, the city hired Robert Johnson, a former Illinois State Police regional commander, to investigate. The inquiry found that excessive force was used against Hanna, leading to the firing of Officer Brandon Yost and the 30-day suspension of Officer Arthur Strong.

Smith, the city attorney, said Johnson has finished his investigation of several other brutality allegations, but the city has not released the results.

Smith said Yost and Bogdala are both challenging their firings through the Fraternal Order of Police union.

Mayor Leon Rockingham could not be reached for comment. Some city officials, along with theRev. Jesse Jackson, have asked theU.S. Department of Justiceto investigate the allegations against police.

rmccoppin@tribune.com