2 cops suspended after man’s spleen was ruptured.
By: Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times: March 28th, 2006
Two men who claimed they were beaten so badly by Chicago Police officers that one suffered a ruptured spleen will share $260,000, under a settlement advanced Monday by a City Council committee.
The beating allegedly occurred on March 26, 2003, when 24-year old Sam Guardino and his 44- year-old uncle, Bedford Randolph, were waiting for a bus at Division and Pulaski.
When Police Officers Nicholas Orlando and Joe Ferraro observed the two men, got out of their squad car and starting walking toward them, Guardino started running because he was carrying drug paraphernalia.
After a few blocks, Guardino claims he stopped running, voluntarily got on the ground and put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed. That’s when Orlando allegedly kicked him in the left side and kept his foot on Guardino’s head until his partner arrived. Ferraro then allegedly kicked Guardino seven or eight more times. Guardino suffered a spleen so severely ruptured it had to be removed.
When Randolph was arrested a short time later, he was allegedly slammed against a squad car and punched twice in the face after the officers drove to a nearby alley.
The officers were both suspended for 30 days. But, that was not punishment enough for Ald. Ed Smith (28th).
“When we find these kinds of cases, they don’t need to be suspended. They need to be kicked off the police force,” he said.
Also on Monday, the Finance Committee approved a $27.7 million settlement to resolve 15 years worth of property tax rate objection cases filed by corporations that make up roughly 50 percent of Chicago’s tax base.
Business property tax deal
Citing a series of technicalities, the businesses claimed that the city’s property tax levy in each of those years was too high.
“We wound up where just under $500 million in refunds were ordered and there was one other objection that’s worth about $13 million that was remanded for a trial,” said chief assistant corporation counsel Wes Hanscom.
First Deputy Budget Director Russ Carlson said one of the larger objections involved an old Public Building Commission bond issue.
“We thought at the time and through the years that the way we did it was proper. The judge decided it was not. We no longer have that bond issue. So, that’s not a problem anymore. The ones we have either lost or are in question, we have corrected the way we do it,” he said.
