Plaintiff:
Frederick M. Stapleton
Incident date:
04/20/2007
Location:
6200 S. Western Ave.
Allegations:
Stapleton was driving a relative's car in the Chicago Lawn area when officers pulled him over. Officers Thornton, Thomas, Oksanen, Dougherty, Wright and Valeriano, members of the Special Operations Section, ordered Stapleton out of the car and handcuffed him. Officers then searched Stapleton and the car without legal justification. After an hour of searching, officers said they found some marijuana in the vehicle. Stapleton never saw the drugs the officers found. The car was impounded and Stapleton was taken to a police station where Thornton strip-searched him. At the station, Stapleton overheard officers say they had no grounds for his arrest. Oksanen suggested looking in the car again and the other officers made fun of him because they'd already searched it thoroughly. Three hours later, Officer Oksanen told Stapleton he found a gun in the car. Valeriano denied him use of the bathroom until he signed a false statement about the gun. Thornton threatened to knock Stapleton's teeth out if he did not sign the false statement. Stapleton was charged with felony gun and drug charges and issued a ticket for having a cracked rear view mirror on his relative's car. The mirror was not cracked and having a damaged mirror is not a violation of the law. The criminal charges were later dismissed, but Stapleton lost the impounded car when officers filed forfeiture proceedings for it and its contents.