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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS 

EASTERN DIVISION

JOSE LOPEZ, by his wife and next best ) Case No. 12 cv 5751 

friend, Sandra Cardiel, )

)

Plaintiff, ) Hon. John Robert Blakey,

v. ) Judge Presiding.

)

STEVAN VIDLJINOVIC, Star No. 4051, ) Hon. Geraldine Soat Brown,

et al., ) Magistrate Judge.

)

Defendants. ) JURY DEMANDED

PLAINTIFFS LOCAL RULE 56.1(b)(3)(C) STATEMENT OF FACTS 

REQUIRING DENIAL OF SUMMARY JUDGMENT

FOR THE CITY OF CHICAGO

NOW COMES plaintiff JOSE LOPEZ, by his wife and next best friend, Sandra Cardiel,

by and through one of their attorneys, John P. DeRose John P. DeRose & Associates, and 

pursuant to Local Rule 56.1(b)(3)(C), respectfully submits the following Statement of Facts 

Requiring the Denial of Summary Judgment in the above-captioned cause:

1. On July 22, 2011 at approximately 3:00 AM, unbeknownst to José Lopez, Guadelupe 

Guzman called 911, requesting an ambulance because plaintiff was having chest pains and 

trouble breathing. . (Tab 1, Event Queries of the Chicago Fire Department; Tab 25, Deposition of 

Guadalupe Guzman, pp. 106:13 to 107:6)

2. Upon the arrival of Chicago Fire Department personnel and paramedics, Lopez told 

them in English, "No. No. No. I'm okay. Don't worry. I don't need attention.", and "No, just go. I 

don't need help.", and "I don't want help, just go." (Tab 25, Deposition of Guadalupe Guzman, 

pp. 115:13 to 116:7, 124:3-7, 134:3-14).

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3. For the next 13 to 16 minutes Lopez continually refused any medical attention 

whatsoever and was "definitely telling [the paramedics] to stay away". (Tab 1, Event Queries of 

the Chicago Fire Department; Tab 2, Event Queries of the Chicago Police Department; Tab 27, 

Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, pp. 68:9-22; Tab 34, Deposition of Commander Dubiel, p. 

48:19-22).

4. The Emergency Medical Responder Orders of the Chicago Fire Department and the 

training of its paramedics acknowledge the right of a citizen to refuse medical attention, but the 

citizen must first sign a Refusal of Treatment or Transport. (Tab 3, Region 11, Chicago EMS 

System Policies and Procedures, Consent/Refusal of Service Policy, pp. B.10-B.11; Tab 27, 

Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, pp. 117:24 to 118:7; Tab 26, Deposition of 

Firefighter/Paramedic Kairis, p. 145:18-24).

5. By their training, Chicago Fire Department paramedics must take a citizen to a hospital

to be evaluated if the citizen of the community has ingested some alcohol or drugs, and the 

patient has no right to refuse. (Tab 27, Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, pp. 113:15 to 114:9; 

Tab 26, Deposition of Firefighter/Paramedic Kairis, p. 148:19 to 149:11).

6. The Policies and Procedures used by Chicago Fire Department Paramedics and EMS 

Personnel require them to seek police assistance if a Citizen will not cooperate with them by 

allowing either examination or transportation to a medical facility. (Tab 3, Region 11, Chicago 

EMS System Policies and Procedures, Consent/Refusal of Service Policy, pp. B.10-B.11; Tab 

27, Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, p.57:14-21).

7. The Municipal Code of the City of Chicago provides that Chicago police officers may 

assist an emergency medical technician in transporting the person to a hospital when the officer 

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is informed by an emergency medical technician that the situation constitutes an emergency and 

that person is in need of immediate hospitalization. (Tab 5, Municipal Code of the City of 

Chicago, Sec. 4-68-110 Peace officer assistance during emergencies).

8. Before ever having said one word to Lopez, or having examined him and without 

declaring any medical emergency, Chicago Fire Department personnel called for Chicago Police 

Department assistance "for drug overdose". (Tab 1, Event Queries of the Chicago Fire 

Department; Tab 27, Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, pp. 69:1-11, 75:20-76:3, 85:13-16; 

86:6-11, 118:8-13; Tab 26, Deposition of Firefighter/Paramedic Kairis, pp. 82:6-7, 92:23-24, 

93:16-23).

9. According to his training and Chicago EMS System Policies and Procedures, if 

Paramedic Mendoza receives a 911 call and arrives on the scene to find a person who is 

intoxicated or under the influence, the person has to go to the hospital to get evaluated and the 

person has no right to refuse transportation. (Tab 27, Deposition of Paramedic Mendoza, pp. 

113:15 to 114:9, 121:8 to 122:9; Tab 3, Region 11, Chicago EMS System Policies and 

Procedures, Consent/Refusal of Service Policy, pp. B.10-B.11).

10. According to his training and through the Project Medical Director of the Chicago 

EMS System, Paramedic Kairis believes that he can force help and assistance on a citizen 

believed to be under the influence of something and in an altered mental state even if the citizen 

does not want his help and assistance. (Tab 26, Deposition of Firefighter/Paramedic Kairis, pp.

104:18-24; 153:20 to 154:22). 

11. The Chicago Police Department Special Orders require Chicago police officers to 

assist paramedics in the transportation of a citizen for medical attention unless citizen refuses 

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transportation on religious grounds. (Tab 6, Special Order S03-08 Assisting Chicago Fire 

Department Paramedics).

12. Paramedic Mendoza was never trained that citizens of the community have a right to 

refuse transportation or any treatment of them on religious grounds. (Tab 27, Deposition of 

Paramedic Mendoza, p.116:2-6).

13. The Chicago Police Department Special Orders provide that citizens believed to be 

under the influence of drugs or alcohol may be assisted to a public treatment facility, a private 

treatment facility or other health facility, if they CONSENT. If the person REFUSES the 

assistance offered, no further police action will be taken. (Tab 7, Special Order S02-01-04 

Alcohol and Drug Dependent Persons; Tab 29, Deposition of Officer Vidljinovic, p. 183:13 to 

185:15).

14. The instructors at the Chicago Police Academy do not teach the officers to take any 

kind of special precautions when they are going into a situation where they will be dealing with a 

person who is believed to be mentally compromised in some way and in need of a mental health 

transport or when dealing with persons of "diminished capacity". (Tab 32, Deposition of Officer 

Cancel, pp. 169:2-18).

15. "In 2010, the city armed hundreds more officers with the weapon, fueling a 329 

percent jump in Taser use, from 195 incidents in 2009 to 836 in 2011. Yet shootings by police 

didn't drop significantly during that period, according to figures from the city's Independent 

Police Review Authority." (Tab 15, Chicago Tribune: Jolt of reality: Shooting persists as 

Chicago Police Taser use skyrockets. Use of devices marketed as means to limit gunfire rose 

more than 300 percent in 2 years, data show. By Dan Hinkel and Alex Richards, July 20, 2012).

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16. During 2010-2011, IPRA commenced 1,281 investigations of excessive force. During 

the 4th quarter of 2010 and the first three quarters of 2011, IPRA closed 867 investigations as 

unfounded and/or exonerated and an additional 846 investigations because no affidavit was 

provided of police officer misconduct. In the 4th quarter of 2011, IPRA closed 162 

investigations as unfounded or not sustained, and closed another 186 investigations 

because there was no affidavit alleging police misconduct. (Tab 16, Annual Report of 

IPRA 2010-12, Statistical Tables, pp. 30-31).

17. "During the third quarter of 2013, IPRA initiated 508 investigations. This 

includes the 110 investigations resulting from notifications of a Taser discharge. 

IPRA responded to 13 officer-involved shootings during the third quarter of 2013.

... Pursuant to the IPRA Ordinance, certain events trigger an IPRA investigation 

even in the absence of an allegation of misconduct. The term 'notification' refers to 

those events that IPRA investigates where there is no alleged misconduct." (Tab 17, 

Quarterly Report of IPRA July 1, 2013 - September 30, 2013, p. 2 and p. 3, fn 1).

18. "As of January 1, 2008, IPRA implemented procedures to issue Log

Numbers for all uses of taser and shootings, regardless of the method of notification. 

In addition CPD issued a reminder to CPD personnel to provide notification to 

IPRA." (Tab 17, Quarterly Report of IPRA July 1, 2013 - September 30, 2013, p. 5, 

fn 7).

19. IPRA starts to gather reports when there is a tasing event as soon as it learns of the 

tasing incident, even if there is no allegation of police misconduct. (Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA 

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Investigator White, pp. 24:16 to 25:4 and 30:21 to 31:2; Tab 17, Quarterly Report of IPRA July 

1, 2013 - September 30, 2013, pp. 3, fn1).

20. According to the Case Log, IPRA Investigator White was not assigned to the José 

Lopez case on July 26, 2012, one year and 4 days after the tasing incident because there had been 

no allegations of police misconduct. (Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, pp. 35:24 

to 36:5 and 39:8-14).

21. Although as part of her investigation for IPRA, Investigator White is supposed to find 

out if there are any in-squad videos of the event, she did not check because the case was over a 

year old. (Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, p. 128:2-14).

22. Investigator White did not talk to any of the police officers who were on the scene 

when the officer activated the Taser at José Lopez because she did not have a Sworn Affidavit.1

(Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, pp. 91:4-10 and 92:14-18).

23. Based on her training, IPRA Investigator White testified, "My understanding when a 

citizen can be Tasered is if they're resisting arrest, in some cases where they're refusing medical 

treatment and they're not in their right mental state of mind and they cannot reasonably make 

decisions as to go into the hospital and they put they self (sic) in harm's way." (Tab 33, 

Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, p. 147:1-6).

24. Based on her training, experience, investigation, and research, IPRA Investigator 

White is unaware of the Taser international questions officers not to use tasers on persons 

 

1 According to the Annual Report of IPRA 2010 – 2012: "The No Affidavit finding is used when 

no one who observed the alleged misconduct provides an interview and affidavit to IPRA, and 

there is no other evidence sufficient to substitute for such a statement and no other exception 

applies."

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suspected to be under the influence of drugs. (Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, 

pp. 181:14-21 and 182:2-12).

25. Although Investigator White testified, "I do know that a deposition can act as a sworn 

affidavit", after receiving the deposition transcripts of Maria Guzman and the Chicago police 

officers at the scene of the José Lopez tasing, IPRA left closed without making any 

determination and did not reopen its investigation of excessive force in the Lopez case because it 

did not have a signed affidavit in the matter. (Tab 33, Deposition of IPRA Investigator White, 

pp. 105:12-18, 109:1-2, and 160:13-18; Tab 35, Email to IPRA Investigator White, including 

deposition transcripts).

26. "It is a system seemingly designed to fail. Chicago police officers enforce a code of 

silence to protect one another when they shoot a citizen, giving some a sense they can do so with 

impunity. The Independent Police Review Authority, the civilian agency meant to pierce that 

protection and investigate shootings of citizens by officers, is slow, overworked and, according 

to its many critics, biased in favor of the police." (Tab 21, Chicago's flawed system for 

investigating police shootings, By Todd Lighty, Stacy St. Clair and Steve Mills, Chicago 

Tribune, December 4, 2015).

27. On December 1, 2015, after accepting the resignation of both the Chief Administrator

of IPRA and the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel 

announced the creation of a Task Force on Police Accountability in an op-ed in the Chicago 

Tribune:

At the end of the day, I am the mayor and I own it. I take 

responsibility for what happened and I will fix it. Nothing less than 

complete and total reform of the system and the culture will meet 

the standards we have to set for ourselves.

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I know the history of police-community relations in Chicago. I am 

the mayor who agreed to provide reparations and bring important 

closure to the victims of Jon Burge and police torture in Chicago. I 

am the mayor who has committed to restoring community policing, 

because the only way to fight crime effectively is to build trust 

between officers and the residents they serve. I am the mayor who 

instituted body cameras for police, to reduce incidents of police 

misconduct as well as unfounded complaints.

(Tab 22, "I own the problem of police brutality, and I'll fix it", Mayor Rahm Emanuel op-ed,

Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2015).

28. In a press release on that same December 1, 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced 

that the newly created Task Force on Police Accountability "is charged with... improving 

independent oversight of police misconduct.... The task force will review what the CPD or IPRA 

can and should do to identify officers with problematic conduct, including racial bias, and what 

can be done to effectively intervene to change that conduct." (Tab 18, Press Release: Mayor 

Emanuel Announces Task Force on Police Accountability, December 1, 2015).

29. In answer to a direct question from moderator, Paris Schultz during an interview on 

Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV on December 8, 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel acknowledged 

that a Code of Silence has existed in the Chicago Police Department. (Tab 23, Mayor Rahm 

Emanuel Interview2on Chicago Tonight WTTW-TV re: Police Reform, Accountability, and the 

Culture and Code of Silence in CPD).

30. On December 9, 2015 in an address3before the Chicago City Council, Mayor Rahm 

Emanuel acknowledged that the Code of Silence is also referred to as "The Thin Blue Line" and 

is used to "cover up" bad actions by police officers:

 

2 A recording of the interview of Mayor Rahm Emanuel on December 8, 2015 can be found at: 

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2015/12/08/mayor-emanuel-police-reform-accountability.

3

A recording of the address to the City Council by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on December 8, 2015 can be found at: 

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2015/12/09/mayor-emanuels-address-city-council-stresses-trust-respect

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CULTURE

As we move forward, I am looking for a new leader of the Chicago 

Police Department to address the problems at the very heart of the 

policing profession.

This problem is sometimes referred to as the Thin Blue Line. Other 

times it is referred to as the code of silence. It is the tendency to 

ignore, deny or in some cases cover-up the bad actions of a 

colleague or colleagues.

No officer should be allowed to behave as if they are above the law 

just because they are responsible for upholding the law.

...

But we cannot have effective policing if we turn a blind eye to the 

extreme misconduct ....

We cannot ask citizens in crime-ravaged neighborhoods to break 

the code of silence if we continue to allow a code of silence to 

exist within our own police department.

(Tab 24, Remarks of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Wednesday, December 9, 2015, as Prepared for 

Delivery, p. 6).

31. Statistics kept by the Chicago Police Department over many years and recently 

revealed show that 2% of excessive force complaints ever result in a sustained finding against 

individual police officers. Statistics recently released by the Citizens Police Data Project Reveal:

56,384 ALLEGATIONS

95.93% of "Allegations" complaints were found" Unsustained"

56,384 Allegations

54,089 Unsustained

2,295 Sustained

(Tab 39, Citizens Police Database (CPDB), spanning approximately 2001 to 2008 and 2011 to 

2015; Tab 40, Small group of Chicago police costs city millions in settlements, By Angela 

Caputo and Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2016).

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32. At the Chicago Police Training Academy, Vidljinovic was instructed that he was to 

aim "center mass" on the front side of the person being tased and he was never instructed that

that it was preferable that the Taser be shot into someone's back. (Tab 29, Deposition of Officer 

Vidljinovic, pp. 136:11-15 and 154:21 to 155:2).

33. Although Taser International warns "whenever possible, officer should avoid 

deploying tasers on people located in an area where a fall would result in serious injury or 

death", Vidljinovic couldn't predict how José Lopez would react to the deployment of the Taser, 

and there was potential he could collapse to the street. (Tab 29, Deposition of Officer 

Vidljinovic, p. 155:19 to156:17).

34. Although Taser International warns that "the involuntary muscle spasms that Tasers 

cause would be injurious to people with pre-existing health problems like osteoporosis, hernias, 

spinal injuries, or soft tissue damage, to name a few. Also, the spasms could cause severe 

exhaustion in people under the influence of drugs or suffering from any number of respiratory or 

mental health problems", Vidljinovic does not recall ever being trained or advised that using a 

Taser against a person is under the influence of drugs will exacerbate the effects on that person. 

(Tab 14, Protocol for a Taser Deployment; Tab 29, Deposition of Officer Vidljinovic, p. 156:21

to 157:7 and 158:12-16).

35. Prominent political leaders have encouraged the United States Department of Justice 

to undertaken an investigation of "systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law." by 

Chicago police officers coming into contact with citizens of the community. (Tab 19, Letter from 

Attorney General Madigan Requesting DOJ Investigation of systemic violations of the 

Constitution or federal law by CPD, December 1, 2015; Tab 20, Letter from Senator Durbin 

asking U.S. Attorney General for Probe of Chicago Police Department, December 3, 2015).

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WHEREFORE, plaintiff moves this Honorable Court for an Order denying the motion 

for summary judgment filed by the City of Chicago in the above-captioned cause. 

Respectfully submitted,

/s/John P. DeRose

John P. DeRose

John P. DeRose & Associates

15 Spinning Wheel Road

Suite 428

Hinsdale, IL 60521

(630) 920-1111 office

(630) 920-1170 fax

john@johnderoselaw.com

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