CPD’S LACK OF DISCIPLINE
14 years after punching woman, Chicago cop hasn’t served suspension in case that highlights department’s problems with punishing officers
Chicago Police Officer Clay T. Walker was accused of punching a 22- year- old woman in the face and pouring a can of Mountain Dew on her while she was handcuffed to a bench inside a police station after being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
That was nearly 14 years ago.
But the case against Walker, a Chicago cop with a history of disciplinary problems, still hasn’t been resolved.
It’s one of the Chicago Police Department’s longest ongoing disciplinary cases, a Chicago Sun- Times investigation has found.
It’s also among more than 400 still- unresolved complaints lodged against Chicago cops between 1989 and 2011, during the administration of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, according to a SunTimes analysis of the 130,905 complaints filed against the city’s cops since 1989.
The Police Department has closed 126,169 of those cases, half of them within 195 days, the Sun- Times found. Some were closed the same day they were opened. Others have slogged on for years — as long as 4,294 days — before being closed.
Chicago’s system for disciplining police officers has been under fire for years. In January, the Justice Department added its own criticism. In a 161- page report examining problems in the Police Department, spurred by public outrage over the Laquan McDonald police shooting, the federal agency said it found that cases often take years to resolve because of the multi- level bureaucracy for disciplining cops.
Some cases drag on because the Police Department is awaiting the results of a criminal investigation. But even seemingly uncomplicated cases not involving outside authorities can go on for years without some resolution.
Consider Walker. It took city officials three years to decide his punishment for punching the woman in May 2003, ordering him to serve a 15- day suspension.
Walker, 49, has yet to serve his suspension despite a letter city officials wrote the woman more than a decade ago to inform her the police superintendent had agreed to discipline the cop who hit her in the face.
By the time of the letter, Walker had taken disability leave because of back pain.
When Walker returned to work five years later, the department still didn’t make him serve the suspension. And he would continue to avoid punishment even as the police opened 11 more internal disciplinary investigations against him for various infractions.
One case involved Walker exposing himself to other officers at roll call, city records show.
Another involved a drunken dispute with a neighbor that ended with Walker naked in a jail cell, leading him to file a police brutality lawsuit against the city, records show.
In the summer of 2015, city officials finally decided it was time for Walker to serve his suspension for punching the 22- year- old woman.
“DISCIPLINE IS DESIGNED TO ADJUST BEHAVIORS SO YOU DON’T REPEAT THOSE BEHAVIORS. WHEN YOU DON’T DISCIPLINE IN A TIMELY MANNER, THE BEHAVIORS CONTINUE.” DEAN ANGELO, Fraternal Order of Police president
Then, Walker filed a grievance over the punishment, as permitted under the police union contract. Until that’s resolved, he can’t be forced to serve the suspension. His case has yet to be assigned to an arbitrator.
Meanwhile, Walker went back on disability in March 2016 — two months after a random drug test found he was using the narcotic oxycodone without a prescription, according to disciplinary charges Supt. Eddie Johnson filed in January, asking the independent Chicago Police Board to fire Walker.
Johnson’s filing came a month after a Sun- Times reporter asked to review the disciplinary case against Walker over punching the woman.
“It undermines the integrity of the accountability system to have cases … languish indefinitely,” says Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as president of the Chicago Police Board, which will decide whether Walker should be fired. She’s also co- chairman of the mayor’s Police Account- ability Task Force.
Dean Angelo Sr., a Chicago cop who’s president of the city’s largest police union, says: “In this situation, you have a guy who has been investigated, the allegations have been sustained, and the
department still doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.
“Discipline is designed to adjust behaviors so you don’t repeat those behaviors. When you don’t discipline in a timely manner, the behaviors continue.”
The Justice Department report, issued in the waning days of President Barack Obama’s administration, blamed the city’s bureaucracy for dealing with these cases for the long delays.
“Having individuals at all levels weigh in on disciplinary recommendations, and even send cases back for more investigation, creates needless opportunity to undermine accountability,” the report said. “The city’s current process thus leaves both victims and officers unclear how, when, or if any officer will be held accountable for misconduct the officer committed, sometimes for years after a finding has been sustained.”
Some delays occur while an investigation is still with the police Bureau of Internal Affairs or the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, the Justice Department found.
But beyond that, its report said, “Once an investigative finding is made, the additional layers of review by the [ police command channel review process], superintendent or police board can result in years of additional delay from the time when an allegation is sustained until discipline is actually imposed and served.”
Emanuel is hoping President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will agree to seek a federal court order to enforce the reforms the report laid out for the Police Department. But the mayor has said he will make reforms with or without the Trump administration.
Asked about Walker, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi would say only that Johnson is taking steps to improve police discipline, pushing for a hotline that will accept anonymous complaints against cops, trying to create “an early intervention system to identify warning signs of problem behavior” and outlining specific penalties for rule violations.
City officials declined to discuss outstanding complaints against Walker and other cops whose cases began under the Police Department’s previous regimes. The Walker case began under Supt. Terry Hillard and has dragged on under superintendents Phil Cline, Jody Weis, Garry McCarthy and now Johnson.
One city official says “it’s totally ridiculous” Walker has avoided serving his punishment for punching a handcuffed woman 14 years ago.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, declined to discuss the case.
Walker has amassed 26 disciplinary complaints during his career. Many cops have more. The data show that about a quarter of the officers in the Police Department haven’t faced a single complaint.
Walker had four complaints on his record when he was accused of hitting the woman. He has received 21 more since that incident, according to Internal Affairs records. Nineteen of his cases were dismissed. He served suspensions in four others. Three others remain pending.
In an hourlong interview, Walker says he never punched or hit the woman despite numerous police reports that say he did. How has he managed to avoid serving the suspension?
“I don’t know how to answer that,” says Walker, a Chicago cop since 1998, who says he didn’t know Johnson wants to fire him. “They’re dragging out coming to a decision on punishments they dole out. And I go on disability before they can get me. They take a long time. They haven’t resolved it because they have bad recordkeeping, laziness. My case gets moved to the back because they have something else they have to take care of.”
“IT UNDERMINES THE INTEGRITY OF THE ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM TO HAVE CASES … LANGUISH INDEFINITELY.’’ LORI LIGHTFOOT Chicago Police Board president