DESPITE SUBPOENA, KEY VIDEO ERASED IN METRA STATION BEATING
D’Nardo Mack was sitting on a bench at Millennium Station in Chicago the night of Jan. 15, 2015, when an argument started with then- officer David Robertson, who ordered him to leave if he didn’t have a ticket.
Mack, 45, refused, and Robertson — unprovoked — punched, beat and peppersprayed Mack, prosecutors said.
Mack spent 20 months in Cook County jail, in part because Metra employees mishandled a subpoena from Cook County prosecutors seeking a surveillance video that could have exonerated him.
Metra officials said Thursday they don’t know why the video never got to the state’s attorney’s office.
During the struggle with Robertson, other officers arrived and surrounded Mack, who was whacked with batons, punched, thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
Mack was charged with aggravated battery of an officer, aggravated assault, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. He stayed in the Cook County Jail until the state’s attorney’s office dropped charges in the fall of 2016.
Ironically, Mack gained his freedom because Robertson gave prosecutors a video of the original surveillance recording that he filmed while watching it with other Metra police officers. Some of them joked during the viewing.
Flash forward to Oct. 30 and Metra officials announced Robertson, a 50- year- old Matteson resident, has been charged by prosecutors with aggravated battery, perjury and official misconduct.
Why didn’t Metra hand over the original video in the first place?
“By the time we were able to reply to [ prosecutors’] request for the original recording, it had been overridden,” spokesman Michael Gillis said. The system is set to record over itself after 30 days, he said.
However, as early as Feb. 5, 2015, prosecutors subpoenaed all evidence, reports and surveillance video related to the Mack case from Metra. That’s 21 days after the assault on Mack and safely within the 30- day threshold.
“It’s clear the video evidence could have exonerated him,” said attorney Martin Gould, who represents Mack in a lawsuit.
Metra fired Robertson in December 2016 after learning the truth from prosecutors. Two officers who joined in the attack also were dismissed.
A lawsuit filed against Metra by Mack is expected to be settled in the coming days.