Judge rejects Rialmo’s bid to rejoin Chicago Police Department
A Cook County judge has denied former Chicago police officer Robert Rialmo’s bid to return to the department.
Rialmo was fired last year for fatally shooting Bettie Jones, 55, in December 2015. He also shot and killed 19- year- old Quintonio LeGrier, a student at Northern Illinois University who charged at Rialmo with an aluminum baseball bat. The shooting of LeGrier was not considered in Rialmo’s firing.
Rialmo, 31, sued the city and the Chicago Police Board in an effort to overturn the board’s October 2019 decision to fire him. Cook County Judge Neil Cohen last week found in favor of the city and board, court records show.
Tim Grace, one of Rialmo’s attorneys, said “what happened to Bettie Jones was terrible,” though he plans to appeal Cohen’s decision.
Kathleen Fieweger, a spokeswoman for the city’s law department, said in an emailed statement: “We are pleased with this important ruling, because it affirms the City’s ability to maintain standards of conduct for all police officers, particularly in the context of events in which innocents bystanders are harmed.”
A representative for the police board declined to comment.
Rialmo and his partner were dispatched to the 4700 block of West Erie Street in the early hours of Dec. 26, 2015, after several calls were made to 911 to report a domestic disturbance between LeGrier and his father.
LeGrier was having a mental health episode, and his father barricaded himself in his bedroom while the younger LeGrier tried to get in with the bat. LeGrier’s father called Jones, who lived downstairs, and asked her to open the front door of the two- flat for police.
After the officers arrived, LeGrier charged down the stairs with the bat and took a swing at Rialmo. Rialmo then opened fire, fatally striking both LeGrier and Jones. It is unclear if Jones was hit by an errant bullet or one that passed through LeGrier. The Chicago Police Board voted 7- 0 to fire Rialmo in October 2019.