Police Investigator Says Cops Abused Him

CHICAGO (CN) - Cops pulled over an investigator with independent police review board, threw him to the ground so hard he soiled himself, then falsely accused him of driving drunk, the man claims in court.

George Roberts, 51, works as a Supervising Investigator for the Chicago Independent Police Review Authority.

He sued the City of Chicago, and six Chicago police officers in Federal Court in Monday, claiming he was a victim of excessive force after police stopped him for a minor traffic violation at 1:30 a.m. on New Year's Day 2015.

The police allegedly approached Roberts' vehicle with their guns drawn, ordered him to exit it, and then pushed him to the ground.

Roberts says one of the officers said to him, "Don't make me fucking shoot you!" even though he had done nothing but comply with the officers' orders.

One of the officers pulled Roberts' wallet from his pocket, and discovered Roberts' identification as a supervising investigator with the authority.

"Moments later, Defendant Ellison ran back to his vehicle and turned off

his vehicle's video recording equipment," Roberts claims. Police assert that there is no video or audio recording of what next conspired even though two other police cars were present.

The complaint states that Roberts, "who was approximately 315 pounds at the time, was placed in a single set of handcuffs that were clearly too tight."

He says he pleaded with the officers to loosen the cuffs, but they refused.

"One of defendants, believes to be defendant Adams, leaned into the squad car and said something to the effect of: 'What are you going to tell me next, you can't breathe?" in a statement apparently mocking the famous last words of Eric Garner, a man killed by New York police in July 2014.

Roberts claims he specifically told police "I'm 6'3'', 315 pounds, these handcuffs are too tight!" and Officer Adams replied, "That's your fault!"

Eventually, the police took Roberts out of the squad car, allegedly annoyed by his complaints.

"Plaintiff was then taken to the ground again so violently he lost control of his bowels," he claims.

Police then took Roberts to jail, where he was forced to sit in his soiled clothes overnight. Despite several requests, he was never allowed to speak to a supervisor about his treatment.

Roberts was given several traffic tickets, and cited for driving under the influence, a crime of which he was acquitted at a bench trial.

The police did not admit there was any video of Roberts' arrest on a dashboard camera, even though a video existed of his driving before police manually turned off the camera, until it was discovered by Roberts' attorney.

Roberts' employer, the IPRA, was created in 2007 to review allegations of police misconduct. It replaced the police-run Office of Professional Standards and is staffed entirely by civilians. Since 2007, the agency has found only one of 400 officer-involved shootings unjustified.

A former investigator, Lorenzo Davis, recently sued the agency for allegedly ordering him to reverse his findings of police misconduct, then firing him for bias against police.

Roberts seeks damages for false arrest, excessive force, false imprisonment, conspiracy, failure to intervene, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and emotional distress.

He is represented by Timothy Fiscella.

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