Plaintiff:
Luis Cordero Jr.
Incident date:
06/26/2010
Location:
5441 N. East River Rd.
Allegations:
Cordero Jr. and Rzany were sitting on a bench outside the Pavilion Apartments in the O'Hare neighborhood, where they were visiting a friend, when a car from a private security company drove up. A security guard got out and told them to leave, and the two stood up to walk away. But before they could leave, Officer Gofron got out of the car, holding a beer bottle in his hand, and screamed at the couple to go. Cordero Jr. and Rzany tried to tell the officer they were leaving, but Gofron pulled out his gun, shouted that he was a police officer, pointed his gun at the two and once again ordered them to leave. Gofron hit Cordero Jr., and also choked Rzany, shoved the barrel of his gun in her mouth, then pistol-whipped her. Another officer, Burg, drove up and told Gofron to leave, but Burg didn't identify Gofron as the attacker when he filed an incident report about the attack. Cordero filed a complaint with the Independent Police Review Authority, but IPRA did not conduct a “substantive” investigation and in fact, did not interview Burg until nearly a year after the complaint was filed.