Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2007 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

January 1, 2007

Section: Editorials

‘97 blueprint for reining in rogue cops gathering dust today

Jamie Kalven ; Special to The Chicago Sun-Times

In a commentary published in the Sun-Times on Sept. 16, I described the human rights scandal disclosed by statistics, provided by the Chicago Police Department, on its internal investigations of citizen complaints of police misconduct. During 2002-2004, for example, an officer accused of excessive force had a 2-in-1,000 chance of receiving meaningful punishment (defined as a suspension of seven days or more). These numbers reveal conditions under which officers with criminal tendencies operate with impunity. And they demonstrate why the performance of the Office of Professional Standards, the section within the Police Department that investigates excessive-force complaints, has long been an issue in the African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods where most abuse occurs.

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2004 Chicago Sun Times

December 8, 2004

Cops get 12 years while lawyers go at it in court ; Convicted of bribery, home invasion, in apartment break-in

Esposito, Stefano

Earlier on in the case, defense attorneys for two Chicago cops charged in a 1998 shakedown accused prosecutors of a cover-up of “Watergate” proportions.

The snarling rhetoric continued Tuesday, on the day a Cook County judge sentenced the disgraced ex-police officers — Rodney Carriger and Ernest Hutchinson — to 12 years each in prison for breaking into a West Side apartment and demanding $8,000 of the residents.

In September, a jury found the two men guilty of bribery, home invasion, official misconduct and armed violence.

Supporters pack courtroom

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2004 Chicago Sun Times

December 8, 2004

Cops get 12 years while lawyers go at it in court ; Convicted of bribery, home invasion, in apartment break-in

Esposito, Stefano

Earlier on in the case, defense attorneys for two Chicago cops charged in a 1998 shakedown accused prosecutors of a cover-up of “Watergate” proportions.

The snarling rhetoric continued Tuesday, on the day a Cook County judge sentenced the disgraced ex-police officers — Rodney Carriger and Ernest Hutchinson — to 12 years each in prison for breaking into a West Side apartment and demanding $8,000 of the residents.

In September, a jury found the two men guilty of bribery, home invasion, official misconduct and armed violence.

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2003 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

December 8, 2003

Office’s ’stars’ driven by desire to help victims get justice

Esposito, Stefano

They don’t have the name recognition of O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clarke. Or Gloria Allred, the celebrity attorney who loudly and publicly demanded that authorities seize Michael Jackson’s kids following his recent arrest.

But Anita Alvarez , Adrienne Mebane and Shauna Boliker are all stars within the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Alvarez is chief deputy, Mebane chief of staff, and Boliker heads up the sex crimes division.

They’ve each had opportunities to take private practice jobs paying much more money, but all three say they stay put — and often work insanely long hours — because nothing quite beats the feeling of helping victims get justice.

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2003 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

December 8, 2003

Section: News

Women know their place: in court ; Most prosecutors here are female, but some say sexism lingers

Stefano Esposito

Time and success have soothed the sting, but Anita Alvarez , the third-highest-ranking attorney in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, hasn’t quite forgotten the chauvinistic snubbing she experienced in the late 1980s.

Back then, Alvarez was a young assistant state’s attorney trying misdemeanor cases, often teaming with a male prosecutor. When the defense attorney on a case wanted to cut a deal, he’d sidle up to Alvarez’s partner for a man-to-man chat, completely ignoring her.

“It was almost inevitable; they would go for the male, even in situations where I had more experience than the other prosecutor,” Alvarez, 43, recalled recently.

CHICAGO SUN TIMES (IL)

Copyright 2004 ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.

July 2, 2001

Taking on the tough cases

Sadovi, Carlos

When Anita Alvarez was a young girl growing up in the Pilsen section of Chicago, her mother would warn her to avoid the Cook County Jail just a mile away.

The prison and the hulking Criminal Courts complex at 26th and California loomed over the heavily Mexican-American neighborhood of low-slung bungalows and two-flats, just higher than the spires of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, where she went to school and attended mass.

“She’d say. “Don’t go around there,’ ” Alvarez recalled. “If we were going anywhere, she would always say be careful, go up 25th Street so we wouldn’t pass the jail.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Copyright 2001 Chicago Tribune Company

April 5, 2001

Section: News

GUILTY VERDICT IN GIRL X CASE - HER TESTIMONY PROVES THE KEY TO CONVICTION

Janan Hanna, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporters Maria Kantzavelos, Kevin Lynch, Michael Higgins and Karen Rivedal contributed to the report.

The man accused of sexually assaulting and beating Girl X was convicted Wednesday in the brutal attack in 1997 that left the young victim disabled yet capable of implicating her attacker in dramatic testimony that proved central to the case.

With their guilty verdict, the seven men and five women of the jury signaled that they gave more weight to the testimony of Girl X than to the testimony of Patrick Sykes, who has long proclaimed his innocence in one of the most vicious crimes Chicago law-enforcement officers have investigated.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Copyright 2001 Chicago Tribune Company

March 24, 2001

Section: News

GIRL X TESTIFIES ABOUT ATTACK - PROSECUTOR HELPS PARALYZED VICTIM SPELL OUT WORDS

Janan Hanna, Tribune staff reporter.

Seated in a wheelchair, her head slumped on her left shoulder, the young sex assault and beating victim known as Girl X was escorted into a Chicago criminal courtroom Friday to testify about the 1997 attack that left her paralyzed, blind and unable to speak.

Appearing in public for the first time since she was brutally assaulted in an attack that gained national attention, Girl X testified for 90 minutes, answering questions by making movements with her head and eyes. The unusual scene culminated a dramatic first day of testimony in the trial of attack suspect Patrick Sykes.

Sykes, 29, was charged with sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted murder in the January 9, 1997, attack at 1121 N. Larrabee St. in the Cabrini-Green housing complex where both he and the victim lived.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Copyright 2000 Chicago Tribune Company

July 27, 2000

Section: Metro Chicago

EX-OFFICER GUILTY IN $8,000 SHAKEDOWN AT WEST SIDE HOME

Janan Hanna, Tribune Staff Writer.

A jury found a former Chicago police officer guilty Wednesday of terrorizing and extorting $8,000 from residents of a West Side apartment during an unofficial raid two years ago.

John Labiak, 35, was found guilty after a five-week trial before Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Bolan. Labiak’s bond was revoked and he was taken into custody after the verdict.

Prosecutors alleged that Labiak, along with two other officers, Rodney Carriger, 35, and Ernest Hutchinson, 50, all of the Special Operations Section, broke into the apartment of Cecilio Lugo in the 1200 block of West Huron Street, threatened Lugo’s relatives and friends and demanded money after finding a bag of marijuana and two guns.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Copyright 1998 Chicago Tribune Company

August 14, 1998

Section: METRO CHICAGO

3 COPS INDICTED IN $8,000 EXTORTION - SUSPECTS WERE REPORTED BY THEIR FELLOW OFFICERS

Terry Wilson, Tribune Staff Writer.

Three Chicago police officers who allegedly demanded $8,000 from a couple in exchange for not arresting them on drug and weapons charges have been indicted on charges of home invasion, armed robbery and official misconduct, prosecutors said Thursday.

The indictment was announced when John Labiak, with 9 years on the Chicago force, Rodney Carriger, an 8-year veteran, and Ernest Hutchinson, with 12 years on the force, appeared before Cook County Circuit Judge William Lacy.

An attorney for one of the officers said all three were suspended without pay by police officials about a week ago. The three had been assigned to the Harrison District.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Copyright 1995 Chicago Tribune Company

May 25, 1995

Section: CHICAGOLAND

GUNMAN CONVICTED OF CABRINI KILLINGS

A man who opened fire during a gang-related quarrel at the Cabrini-Green public housing development nearly two years ago has been convicted in Cook County Circuit Court of the murders of two teens.

The murders, in the early hours of June 25, 1993, were the first at the housing complex since 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by a sniper in October 1992.

J.T. Sparkman, 20, of 1121 N. Larrabee St., was convicted Monday of two counts of first-degree murder, and Assistant State’s Attorneys Anita Alvarez and James Sanford said they would seek the death penalty at sentencing, set for June 30 before Judge Fred Suria Jr.

A dispute over gang turf had erupted in front of 502 W. Oak St., and Sparkman opened fire with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, Alvarez said. Derrick Russell, 18, and Shawn Knowles, 14, who lived in the Oak Street building, were each hit six times, she said.

Copyright © 1995 Chicago Tribune Company