{"id":25824,"date":"2016-08-05T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=25824"},"modified":"2016-08-05T15:00:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T22:00:27","slug":"chicagos-skullcap-crew-band-of-police-accused-of-history-of-brutality-evade-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=25824","title":{"rendered":"Chicago’s ‘Skullcap Crew’: band of police accused of history of brutality evade discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"guardian-logo\"<\/p>\n

By Alison Flowers, Anna Boisseau, Kari Lydersen, Madison Hopkins and Rajiv Sinclair in Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Ebony Buggs followed the noise of commotion to a vacant unit below her apartment on Chicago\u2019s West Side, she found a group of men beating teens from the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Who the eff is you?\u2019\u201d she said of the February 2012 incident.<\/p>\n

One man grabbed her and punched her in the face, according to Buggs, now 26.<\/p>\n

Buggs\u2019 mother, seeing her daughter lying on the ground, threatened to call the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are<\/em> the police,\u201d one of the men responded, as he grabbed her phone and threw it, Buggs\u2019 mother recounted.<\/p>\n

The man who Buggs alleges beat her is Edwin Utreras. He was part of a group of five officers that city residents dubbed the \u201cSkullcap Crew\u201d, who patrolled the city\u2019s South Side public housing communities until they were torn down in the city\u2019s redevelopment efforts, marked by forced relocation.<\/p>\n

\n
\"edwin<\/picture><\/div>
(Edwin Utreras.
\nPhotograph: Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The members of this crew \u2013 Edwin Utreras, Robert Stegmiller, Christ Savickas, Andrew Schoeff and Joe Seinitz \u2013 have together faced at least 128 known official allegations from more than 60 citizen-filed complaints over almost a decade and a half. They have also been named in more than 20 federal lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Citizens have repeatedly accused these men of acts of brutality, intimidation and harassment \u2013 costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal settlements. Yet over the course of their careers, these officers have received little discipline \u2013 a two-day suspension, a five-day suspension, a reprimand \u2013 according to city data. Instead, they have won praise from the department, accruing more than 180 commendations.<\/p>\n

All of them remain on the force except Seinitz, who resigned in 2007.<\/p>\n

Chicagoans have long complained of unchecked brutality and violence by police officers in the city\u2019s impoverished, African American neighborhoods \u2013 much of it before the department gained international notoriety from a video that showed17-year-old Laquan McDonald\u2019s death<\/a> by 16 police bullets.<\/p>\n

But only a small subset of officers are responsible for the vast majority of these complaints, according to a Guardian analysis of a new citizen complaint database. Most officers, about 80% of the total force, have zero to four complaints against them.<\/p>\n

The Guardian\u2019s analysis of known accusations from complaints against members of the Skullcap Crew shows that at least a third of these claims include use of force violations, with almost half of them involving injuries. The allegations also include at least five strip searches and more than 20 claims of false arrest or planting drugs. The vast majority of these known allegations, 87%, were filed by African Americans. And African Americans accounted for 100% of the victims of verbal abuse and false arrest allegations.<\/p>\n

Very few of these allegations, however, were sustained and even fewer were punished.<\/p>\n

The Citizens Police Data Project<\/a>, a repository of more than 56,000 official complaints against police, has found that less than 3%<\/a> of Chicago police misconduct complaints lead to disciplinary action (including minor interventions, such as reprimands), with even lower rates for African American complainants, and for officers charged with high numbers of complaints, like the Skullcap Crew.<\/p>\n

Out of the more than 60 citizen-filed misconduct complaints against the Skullcap Crew members, only six complaints resulted in a sustained finding and a recommendation of disciplinary action. Other complaints indicate \u201cno action taken\u201d or a pending decision.<\/p>\n

But even as the department has vowed to improve its relationship with communities, particularly African Americans, Utreras and the other three Skullcap Crew members who remain on the force have continued to receive complaints since their time together in Public Housing South. As recently as February 2016, Utreras and Stegmiller have been the subject of complaints for alleged illegal arrest.<\/p>\n

After her encounter with Utreras, Buggs spent the night in jail facing a charge of battery to a police officer. \u201cThat is like one of the worst feelings, to get turned around and get locked up and you didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s attorney\u2019s office later dropped the charge against Buggs on the day it was set for trial, according to Buggs\u2019 attorney. She filed a civil rights lawsuit in January 2013 against Utreras and the City of Chicago<\/a>. In legal filings, Utreras denied all abuse allegations, but in a deposition, he did admit to hitting her, in response to Buggs\u2019 touching his arm:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

A: Basically spun around as in one motion. My open hand, I believe, struck Ebony Buggs, I believe in her right cheek area or something like that.<\/p>\n

Q. Were you aiming for her face?<\/p>\n

A. No. I just kind of aimed going backwards. Hoping to strike an impact area.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s an impact area?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A. Chest, head, possibly the arms. Impact areas.<\/p>\n

Q. What part of your hand made contact with Ms Buggs\u2019 face?<\/p>\n

A. The back of my hand.<\/p>\n

Q. Did your knuckles make contact with her face?<\/p>\n

A. Possibly.<\/p>\n

Ask Diane Bond<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On 13 April 2003, members of the Skullcap Crew allegedly confronted Bond, a 48-year-old mother of three, outside her Stateway Gardens apartment, then forcibly entered the apartment with her, Bond alleges. For no apparent reason, they beat her, ransacked her room and destroyed her belongings, she reported. They threatened to plant drugs and otherwise terrorized her, her son and others, she reported. She charged in a lawsuit that an officer forced her to move aside her panties and show him \u201cthe most private areas of her body\u201d repeatedly in search of drugs; none were found. One officer allegedly punched Bond in the face and knocked a picture of a brown-skinned Jesus to the floor, saying, \u201cFuck Jesus \u2026 and you too, you cunt bitch,\u201d according to both her federal lawsuit and journalist Jamie Kalven, who first documented the incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bond\u2019s lawsuit resulted in a settlement, and her case ultimately gave rise to a separate lawsuit, Kalven v City of Chicago, in which the Illinois appellate court ruled in 2014 that police misconduct records are public information.<\/p>\n

Bond also filed misconduct complaints against the officers. But like most citizen complaints, they resulted in no discipline. Rather, Bond and her family experienced more abuse and intimidation from the Skullcap Crew, as alleged in legal filings.<\/p>\n

Policed to saturation<\/h2>\n

Chicago\u2019s public housing developments were until the early 2000s policed by the housing authority\u2019s own set of officers. But in pursuit of better security, funding for public housing patrols was transferred to the Chicago police department in 2000, with promises that included more officers on car and foot patrols.<\/p>\n

For many residents, this saturation of patrols and aggressive policing became a form of neighborhood terror. Officers in this unit logged a high number of complaints. In one 2001 incident, Public Housing South officers raided a basketball game in the Stateway Gardens housing project, terrorizing the crowd and players, as later described in a federal class action lawsuit. The city ultimately settled the lawsuit for a half-million dollars. \u201cThe police methodically subjected nearly all of the people present \u2013 from babies and young children with their mothers watching the games to basketball players in full uniform \u2013 to invasive, warrantless searches of their bodies and personal effects,\u201d said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago attorney representing the plaintiffs, in a statement.<\/p>\n