2 cops cleared; 1 convicted

A Cook County judge on Wednesday cleared a Chicago Police sergeant and a former Glenview police officer on charges they lied during a hearing involving a drug case at the Skokie courthouse.

But another defendant, 55- year- old Chicago Police Officer William Pruente, was convicted of perjury, official misconduct and obstruction of justice.

Pruente’s testimony from a March 31, 2014, hearing connected to the arrest of Glenview resident Joseph Sperling was “material,” Judge Matthew Coghlan said, issuing his rulings in Pruente and Sgt. James Padar’s bench trial.

It was Pruente who had handcuffed Sperling after a June 6, 2013, traffic stop in the suburb after receiving information from a confidential informant that Sperling had drugs, Coghlan said.

“He [ Pruente] knew his testimony was false,” the judge said.

Pruente, Padar, Chicago Police Officer Vince Morgan and James Horn, then a Glenview officer, testified that Sperling was handcuffed only after he retrieved his driver’s license, they smelled marijuana in his car and found drugs inside.

But video footage from a squad car at the scene contradicted that testimony, prosecutors said. The footage later prompted a Cook County judge to dismiss charges against Sperling.

Pruente’s attorney, Colleen Daly, had argued that her client didn’t intentionally lie. “Mistakes are made. . . . These mistakes should not be criminalized,” she said.

Horn and Padar had limited interaction with Sperling, Coghlan said.

Horn, 53, was acquitted earlier Wednesday after his attorney Daniel Herbert asked for a directed verdict.

Morgan, 50, pleaded to a misdemeanor attempted obstruction of justice charge in September and got a year of probation, records show.

In September, Sperling was charged in a deadly hitand- run crash in Morton Grove that killed 48- year- old Denise Cavada, according to reports. Sperling, now 26, is awaiting trial on charges including aggravated DUI.