[9/20/17] Today OCAD is releasing the records of misconduct and abuse of six law enforcement agentsresponsible for for wrongfully identifying Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez, an immigrant father of 3 from the Back of the Yards neighborhood, as a potential gang member, leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to raid his home and take him into detention.
The records of the police officers are relevant because, without any checks and balances or due process, the Chicago Gang Database relies completely on the word of police officers. By continuing to ignore the problems of the gang database and the Chicago Police Department, the City of Chicago is a complicit partner in Trump’s deportation efforts and continues to lack protections for its residents.
The list of law enforcement agents involved in Mr. Catalan-Ramirez’s detention includes Commander Christoph Kennedy, Commander Alfred Nagode, as well as Police Officers Samuel Lopez, Angel Colon, Tomas Rosales, and Ryan King. The four police officers were added to the complaint against the City of Chicago at the start of the September.
According to their police records, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests by the Invisible Institute and information gathered through Chicago Reporter’s Settling for Misconduct database, together these officers:
- Have a collective 60 reports of use of force measured by the number of Tactical Response Reports (TRR) in their records. Two of the officers, Lopez and Colon, each have 18 reports of use of force, putting them amongst the top 5% of Chicago police officers in reports for use of force.
- Have been the subject of internal investigations or complaints by Chicagoans 58 times. Officer Ryan King accounts for 17 of those complaints, putting him within the top 11% of all officers with the highest number of complaints in Chicago.
- Have cost the Chicago taxpayers $600,000 in payouts for settled court cases. Officer Lopez alone is responsible for $525,000 of those payouts, when he took part in chasing a 17 year old with autism into his family’s restaurant, “where they pushed his father to the ground and beat the young man in front of his parents.” According to the Chicago Reporter database, “Police threatened the family when they asked officers to explain what had happened.”
During two separate incidents, these four police officers identified Catalan-Ramirez as a member of two different and opposing gangs in the Back of the Yards community. As the amended lawsuit explains, the four CPD officers under the supervision of the two Commanders “wrongly assumed Mr. Catalan-Ramirez was a gang member because he was a young Latino who lived in a neighborhood that is considered to be gang territory.” It also points out that none of the officers gave Mr. Catalan-Ramirez a chance to look at any evidence against him or the chance to defend himself, and did not inform him of being listed as a suspected gang member by Chicago police.
The release of the documents is part of an on-going campaign to get Chicago to review the Chicago Gang Database processes and contents, including potential civil rights and constitutional violations. The groups are part of the Campaign to Expand Sanctuary in Chicago. Mr. Catalan-Ramirez is represented by the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in the lawsuit.
Police Officer’s Records
Records of Police Officers and Commanders Named in Gang Database Lawsuit against the City of Chicago and the law enforcement officers for their role in helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) erroneously identify Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez as a gang member, leading to the separation from his family and potential deportation. The records were obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests and through research in the Chicago Reporter’s Settling for Misconduct database for Organized Communities Against Deportations and the Campaign to Expand Sanctuary in Chicago.
Commander Christoph Kennedy:
- Rank: Commander
- Appointed date: 6/29/92
- Promoted to his current position: 12/16/08
- Race: White
- Age: 45
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 2
- Percentile of all officers for use of force: 48.6%
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 2
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 26.6%
- Court cases in which he is named and a settlement has been paid out: 0
Police Officer Samuel Lopez:
- Rank: Police Officer
- Appointed date: 10/29/07
- Race: Hispanic
- Age: 39
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 18
- Percentile of all officers for use of force: 96.9%
- Taser Use: 3
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 11
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 89.8%
- Court cases in which he has been named and a settlement has been paid out: 1
- Settlements and fees associated with the case: $525,000
Police Officer Angel Colon:
- Rank: Police Officer
- Appointed date: 12/5/05
- Race: Hispanic
- Age: 34
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 18
- Percentile of all officers for use of force: 95%
- Chemical weapons use: 1
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 12
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 87.3%
Police Officer Tomas Rosales:
- Rank: Police Officer
- Appointed date: 8/28/06
- Race: Hispanic
- Age: 46
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 9
- Percentile of all officers for TRRs: 85.9%
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 6
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 69.3%
Police Officer Ryan King:
- Rank: Police Officer
- Appointed date: 10/28/02
- Race: White
- Age: 35
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 8
- Percentile of all officers for TRRs: 78%
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 17
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 89.5%
- Court cases he’s named in which a settlement was paid out: 1
- Settlements and fees associated with the case: $75,000
Commander Alfred Nagode:
- Rank: Commander
- Appointed date: 12/5/88
- Last promoted date: 9/16/07
- Race: White
- Age: 51
- Gender: Male
- Tactical Response Reports (TRRs): 5
- Percentile of all officers for TRRs: 67.6%
- Internal Investigations and Citizen Complaints (CRs): 10
- Sustained CRs: 0
- Percentile of all officers for CRs: 67.9%
- Court cases he’s named in which a settlement was paid out: 0