By: Frank Main & Steve Warmbir, Chicago Sun-Times: February 2nd, 2004
A Harvey deputy marshal helped a detective rob and beat two men from the south suburb days before the marshal was arrested in a holdup on Chicago’s West Side, according to a lawsuit.
Attorney Jon Loevy said he will ask the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to investigate the allegations against then-Deputy Marshal Kevin Jones and Detective Sgt. Ramonde Williams.
“The system is broken in Harvey,” Loevy said. “They’re out of control.”
On Dec. 23, Harvey officers broke down the door of a house at 15711 Lexington, and Williams stole $225 from a pocket of Lorenzo Doles, said the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court. Jones said he earned the money on a construction job. Jones and Williams allegedly beat Doles. Williams also attacked another man, Victor Edmondson, the lawsuit said. The officers conducted anal cavity searches of Doles and Edmondson after Williams yelled, “Tell us where the money and drugs are,” the lawsuit said.
Doles and Edmondson have received medical treatment for injuries they sustained in the raid, Loevy said. Williams beat Doles with a child’s tricycle, giving him a head injury, the lawsuit said. Williams allegedly struck Edmondson with a chair, impairing his vision and separating his shoulder. Jones punched and kicked Doles, the lawsuit said.
Doles was charged with drug possession and obstructing a police officer, but Judge Edwin Gausselin threw out the case because Doles was held more than 48 hours without a bond hearing, court records show. Charges also were dropped against Edmondson, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claims Doles and Edmondson’s civil rights were violated and accuses Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg of giving police a mandate to “aggressively intervene in the lives of all of Harvey’s residents, particularly young African-American males, in the name of combatting gang members and drug dealers.”
The result is a “police state atmosphere” featuring a program that gives 35 deputy marshals guns and arrest powers, while they receive a fraction of the training of full-time officers, said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
A Harvey spokeswoman offered no comment until she sees the lawsuit.
Jones, a deputy marshal hired under Kellogg, was arrested Dec. 26 on Chicago’s West Side and charged with Ford Heights police officer Michael Miller of stealing more than $1,600 at gunpoint from a group of men on the street. Jones was booted from the deputy marshal program. Kellogg was sued last week for allegedly violating the rights of three female city workers he interrogated to investigate death threats against him.
