Plaintiff:
Rashad B. Swanigan
Incident date:
08/22/2006
Location:
4343 N. Elston Ave.
Allegations:
Swanigan was leaving a bank in the Irving Park neighborhood when Officers Trotter and Muehlfelder, without reasonable suspicion, stopped him as he walked toward his car. The officers told Swanigan that he looked like a robber and asked him if he was trying to rob the bank. They placed him in tightly bound handcuffs and searched him and his car without his permission. Additional officers arrived at the scene, including Sergeant Kaupert. The officers debated whether they had enough evidence to arrest Swanigan and agreed they did. The officers ordered his car to be impounded and towed. He was taken into custody and detained for more than 50 hours. During that time, he was confined to a small room, shackled to the wall, searched, fingerprinted and never told the reason for his arrest. The arrest report states that Swanigan was arrested for misdemeanors, which did not require the police to hold him for a bail hearing. Detectives Lynch and Mullane put a "hold" request on Swanigan for the purpose of trying to gather evidence against Swanigan for a robbery. During the 50 hours he was in custody, Swanigan was repeatedly moved from one police station to another, interrogated several times by Detectives Lynch and Mullane, denied food and drink, not allowed to sleep, and denied access to the bathroom, all in an attempt to coerce a false confession. Through his detention, Swanigan was ridiculed, threatened and taunted by unknown police officers. During these two days, Swanigan was denied access to an attorney, and his father, a retired police officer, was denied access to his son. Upon release, Swanigan was given two citations, for driving on a suspended license and driving without insurance. These false traffic charges were later dismissed. He received paperwork indicating that his car had been towed for possession of an unlawful firearm, even though the officers did not find a firearm in the car.