Officers pack courtroom as Oak Lawn cop pleads not guilty
Oak Lawn Police Officer Patrick O’Donnell pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony charges that he abused his authority when he repeatedly punched a 17-year-old boy in the head during an arrest last summer in the southwest suburb.
More than three dozen officers, most of them wearing Oak Lawn police uniforms, packed into a small second-floor courtroom and spilled out into the hallway at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for the hearing Wednesday morning in a show of support for O’Donnell.
The officer was seen punching Hadi Abuatelah more than 10 times in the head with a closed fist on July 27 — at times while holding the teenager by the head and by his hair — while another officer knelt on Abuatelah’s legs as they both shouted commands at him, Cook County prosecutors said.
Abuatelah spent six days in a hospital for fractures to his face, skull and pelvis, as well as swelling of his brain. Attorneys for Abuatelah and his family have sued the village in federal court alleging the teenager’s civil rights were abused.
O’Donnell was indicted by a grand jury last month on counts of aggravated battery and official misconduct.
Video of the beating, captured by a bystander, led to protests by members of the Arab American community, who alleged profiling and harassment by the suburb’s officers.
Oak Lawn Police Chief Daniel Vittorio has defended his officer’s actions as being in line with their training and said Abuatelah refused to follow the officers’ commands and was reaching for a shoulder bag that contained a loaded handgun.
The state’s attorney’s office charged the teen with illegally possessing a gun days after the incident, and the case is still pending in juvenile court.
O’Donnell’s attorney James McKay claimed Abuatelah had been “trying to get that gun” and said his client and the other officers were lucky to have escaped the arrest with their lives.
“This is just another example of [Cook County State’s Attorney] Kim Foxx criminalizing lawful arrests,” McKay told Judge Domenica Stephenson during the hearing.
The 33-year-old officer was hired by the department in 2014, is a lifelong resident of the county and the father of two young children, McKay added.
He asked the judge not to side with prosecutor’s request that O’Donnell be ordered to surrender his FOID card and any weapons in his possession, saying it would threaten the officer’s ability to work and provide for his family.
Stephenson ordered O’Donnell released on his own recognizance and did not have him surrender his FOID or any weapons while the case continues.
O’Donnell is expected back in court on April 4.
Muhammad Sankari, an organizer with the Arab American Action Network, called McKay’s suggestion that Abuatelah posed a threat to the officers “beyond ridiculous.”
“The reality is there is only one person in that courtroom who almost killed someone,” Sankari said. “There is a police officer that almost killed a child.”
Noting the number of officers in attendance, Sankari questioned who was patrolling the village and whether the officers were being paid with taxpayer money to travel to and attend the hearing.
Sankari said the group would hold another demonstration and submit testimony at a meeting of the Oak Lawn Police Board on Wednesday evening.