Plaintiff:
Schuyler Lewis
Incident date:
03/03/2009
Location:
3500 W. Chicago Ave.
Allegations:
Lewis was eating while in his parked car. An officer pulled alongside him in a squad car and said he couldn't park and eat there. Lewis drove for about two blocks before Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak pulled him over. Once stopped, Lewis removed his keys from the ignition. As Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak walked towards Lewis's car a second squad car arrived at the scene and an unknown officer got out. Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak asked for Lewis' license and insurance. Lewis said he had insurance but no license. Officers yanked Lewis out of the car, causing his phone and keys to fall to the ground. The unknown officer picked them up and Lewis asked for his phone back. The unknown officer said, "No, you f**king idiot. This is my phone now," before driving off with Lewis' phone and keys. Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak handcuffed Lewis and searched his car. Officers found nothing illegal in the car and then asked Lewis where they could find guns or drugs. Lewis told them he didn't know anything and as officers were about to release him they realized his keys were missing. When officers couldn't find the keys they began to aggressively search Lewis and demand he tell them where the keys were. Officer Liebhaber began punching Lewis, who was still handcuffed, in the stomach while yelling about the missing keys. Lewis told Officer Liebhaber the unknown officer drove off earlier with his keys and phone. Officer Liebhaber stopped punching Lewis and made a call. The unknown officer returned but only gave Officer Liebhaber Lewis' phone because he'd thrown away the car keys. The unknown officer left. Lewis was afraid officers were going to kill him because of their earlier mistreatment of him and began screaming for help. Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak quickly got into their squad car and drove away with Lewis. Lewis kept repeating, "Please officer, don't kill me. I don't want to die." Officer Liebhaber told Lewis to shut up or they'd shut him up. Officers eventually took Lewis to a police station where another officer asked if Lewis wanted to file a complaint against Officers Liebhaber and Matysiak, but he was never given a complaint form or any other means to file a complaint against them.