Former Chicago police supervisor hit with federal lawsuit, accused of threatening jail for sex act

A former Chicago police supervisor is facing a federal lawsuit for alleged sexual misconduct while on duty, a filing that accuses him of threatening to arrest a transgender woman if she did not perform a sex act on him.

The lawsuit was the second this year accusing the former officer of on-duty sexual misconduct. He retired from the department as a sergeant in April after being relieved of his police powers during an internal review of the latest claim.

The allegation also is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, police said. It is the third time in recent years the same officer has been sued for misconduct. The two prior cases were settled by the city.

The Tribune first reported in June that the transgender woman had made her allegation. The newspaper is not naming the former sergeant or the woman because of the ongoing criminal investigation of her accusation.

In her lawsuit filed last month, the woman alleged she was in the area of Fifth and Cicero avenues in the West Side’s Lawndale neighborhood on March 5 when a Chicago police officer wearing a white uniform top -- reserved for supervisors with the rank of sergeant or above -- approached her in his marked police vehicle.

The retired officer named in the lawsuit, then a sergeant in the Harrison District, was later identified by the woman as the cop in question.

After he pulled up, the officer asked her why she was in the area, and told her she had to perform a sex act on him “because that’s what you do or you will go to jail,” the lawsuit alleged.

The officer ordered the woman into the front passenger seat and drove her to a secluded area near Lexington Street and Kostner Avenue, overlooking the Eisenhower Expressway, according to the lawsuit. She also alleged that the officer ordered her to give him her phone number.

“I can make you one of my regulars,” the woman quoted him as saying, according to police reports obtained by the Tribune.

The woman alleged she performed the sex act on the officer out of fear before he left her in an alley, the lawsuit said. Without the sergeant’s apparent knowledge, she was able to preserve some DNA evidence from the incident, which she turned over to caregivers later that night at Rush University Medical Center, she told detectives, according to police reports.

Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern said investigators still were awaiting the results of DNA testing as part of the criminal investigation into the alleged assault.

The retired sergeant could not be reached for comment. Michael Crowley, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, declined to comment on the lawsuit citing the pending litigation.

The woman’s lawyer, Christopher Smith, said her lawsuit shows how police officers, if their behavior goes unchecked by superiors, can get away with misconduct against citizens who are marginalized and vulnerable.

“This is one of the worst abuses of police power there can be,” said Smith. “(The) transgender community gets abused so often that they actually are starting to know what to do in instances like this, which is why my client acted so intelligently and quickly to be able to fight back (against) the situation, despite being powerless against an officer who can threaten arrest or worse.”

In a separate lawsuit filed in August, another woman accused the same officer of stalking and harassing her when he was on duty, in uniform, and driving a Chicago police vehicle. The city has agreed to settle that case.

In an incident on Sept. 8, 2016, that woman alleged that he pulled up next to her vehicle and ordered her to follow him into an abandoned parking lot near Roosevelt Road and Homan Avenue. Once there, he performed a sex act on himself in front of her between their two parked cars, forcing her to watch, according to the lawsuit.

The officer then released the woman without issuing her any tickets, and she wasn’t charged with any crimes, according to the court document. Court records show the city entered into an agreement to settle the case this month, but the terms were not immediately disclosed.

The officer also was named in a 2013 suit, which the city settled for $220,000.

In that lawsuit, the officer was one of several named defendants in a federal civil complaint alleging that he arranged for a woman to be strip-searched without justification.

The woman alleged in her suit that she came into contact with the officer in 2011 at the Harrison District police station after she had been pulled over in a car driven by her boyfriend. The officer allegedly grabbed her, handcuffed her and took her into a secure area.

As a way of punishing the woman’s boyfriend for challenging him, the officer ordered another cop to strip-search the woman, her lawsuit alleged. She was released without charges, the suit stated.

The retired sergeant, who joined the department in December 1989, originally was recommended for firing more than 20 years ago after an investigation by the Internal Affairs Division, when he was a Harrison District tactical officer. He was found to have threatened to throw a felon back into prison on bogus drug charges unless the man handed over an illegal gun. The officer was ultimately was given a 30-day suspension.

But the retired sergeant also earned high marks in his 29 years with the department, receiving nearly 150 awards, according to department records. He retired on April 15, nine days after being relieved of his police powers as the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs investigated the transgender woman’s allegations.

Anthony Guglielmi, another police spokesman, said the officer already had been planning a mid-April retirement. He is set to receive more than $86,000 annually for his pension, records show.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

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