Plaintiff:
Thomas P. Lally
Incident date:
08/15/2008
Location:
4934 N. Kedzie Ave.
Allegations:
Lally, a battalion chief with the Chicago Fire Department, was supervising the response to a house fire. He made a routine request for a report number, for the purpose of documenting property damage, from Officers Ramos and Gonzalez. The officers denied his request. Lally radioed a police supervisor to come to the scene and order the officers to give him the report number. Sgt. Kaupert arrived at the scene, and instead of directing the officers to prepare a report number for Lally, he belittled Lally in front of the officers and civilian bystanders. Lally told Kaupert that he intended to report him to his watch commander for insubordination. Kaupert ordered that Lally be arrested. Lally was taken to a police station. As a result of his arrest, Lally's battalion chief car was left unattended at the fire scene and his fire district was unsupervised. At the station, the officers continued to insult him. They confiscated his portable radio and placed him in a cell. After an hour, the acting watch commander, Lt. Gale, took Lally to his office and told him he would not be charged with an offense. Gale urged Lally to lie about the incident by suggesting that Lally say he had “relocated” to the police station voluntarily as part of the fire investigation. Gale drove Lally back to his car and continued to encourage him to cover up the incident, asking if he could obtain Lally's favorite liquor for him. Lally refused to participate in the cover-up.