Opinion ID: 2998688
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evans’ Alleged Harassment

Text: Evans claims that shortly after his appearance on television, he was subjected to a campaign of harassment and terrorization by a number of Chicago Police Officers. Specifically, Evans claims that Officers Joseph McCarthy, Robert Hofer, Robert Bullington, Michael Kozenko, James Hladick, Richard Coyle, Mark Smith and Tony Green7 committed various illegal and unwarranted offenses against him, e.g., allegedly arresting him without probable cause, threatening him and continually confronting him on the street and at his home in an effort to harass and intimidate him. The alleged harassment began in early April 1997—approximately one-and-a-half weeks after the news 5 The complaint also alleged a number of constitutional and civil rights deprivations on Perkins’ behalf relating to the events of the night surrounding her death. 6 As it turns out, the Perkins’ family’s suit against the city never reached trial, as it was settled on March 24, 1999, with Perkins’ family receiving $500,000 in damages. 7 Evans had contact with many of these officers prior to Perkins’ death. For example, in February of 1997, Officers McCarthy and Hoefer (who regularly patroled the area surrounding Evans’ home at 3388 West Van Buren) had stopped him and questioned him. No arrest was made at that time. Additionally, just two weeks before Perkins death, Officers McCarthy and Bullington encountered Evans while they were arresting Perkins for possession of narcotics. Perkins was taken into custody, but Evans was questioned and released. 6 No. 03-3844 broadcast—and continued until late December of 1997.8 According to Evans, the reasoning behind this supposed persecution was to keep him quiet and to discourage him from testifying—either in front of the OPS or in federal court in conjunction with Perkins’ pending lawsuit—concerning the incident that he witnessed on the evening of March 22, 1997. On the other hand, the officers claim that Evans was a known drug dealer and they were just doing their job by checking up on him and stopping him, when necessary, to ascertain whether he was in possession of, or dealing, illegal drugs. Indeed, during this time period Evans was arrested on three separate occasions—May 12, 1997, June 8, 19979 and July 14, 1997—for felony possession of a controlled substance, in violation of 720 ILCS 570/402.10 On each occa- 8 On a number of occasions, Evans describes being accosted on the street and/or near his home by two or more officers. For example, about three weeks after Perkins’ death, Evans claims that Officers McCarthy, Bullington, Coyle and Kozenko approached the vacant lot next to Evans’ house and proceeded to, without cause, ask him to take off all of his clothes so that they could search him. Evans goes on to assert that officers performed a cavity search on him and then proceeded to laugh at him when he refused to answer any of the questions posed to him. Evans states he was humiliated and angry, noting that he refused to answer any of their questions. According to Evans, incidents such as this continued throughout the summer and fall. What’s more, Evans claims that during the same time frame he was simply minding his own business, but that police officers made a point of continually attempting to intimidate and harass him. 9 In addition, the day following this arrest, June 10, 1997, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office filed a violation of probation charge against Evans, relating back to a 1996 conviction he had sustained, also for possession of a controlled substance. 10 Evans was also arrested on September 5, 1997, by Officer Hofer (continued...) No. 03-3844 7 sion, Evans claims he was arrested without cause and that he was mistreated by police officers. For instance, Evans claims that when he was arrested on May 12, 1997,11 officers proceeded to kick, punch and otherwise abuse him after chasing him into his house.12 In addition, Evans claims that after being arrested and transported to the 11th District Police Station, officers resumed beating him in the parking lot before taking him inside the station house and forcing him to strip naked in front of a female detainee. After being allowed to dress, Evans alleges that the officers “paraded” him through the police station, announcing to other officers that he was “the one that was on T.V.” and informing them that they should “lock his ass up” whenever they encountered him.13 10 (...continued) on an outstanding warrant and on September 21, 1997, by Officers McCarthy and Bullington for disorderly conduct. 11 It should be noted, however, in a hearing concerning Evans’ May 12, 1997 arrest, a Cook County Circuit Court judge specifi- cally found that there was indeed probable cause to arrest Evans. 12 Evans claims that he “possessed no contraband” and that “[t]he defendant officers produced the controlled substances at the 11th District, falsely claiming it had come from Ronnie Evans.” However, the police report tells a far different story. According to the police report officers had been conducting surveillance in the area of the 3300 block of West Van Buren on that date and had witnessed six different subjects purchase drugs from three different individuals, later identified as Evans, Doris Jones and Anthony Gray. The report also states that when Evans was approached by officers after distributing what appeared to be contraband, he immediately ran into his house. However, before he reached the door he dropped a baggie containing 20 individual doses of crack cocaine. 13 Evans was released on a bond a day or two later and placed on house arrest pending an appearance on the charge. Four days after his arrest, on May 16, 1997, Evans made a statement to OPS (continued...) 8 No. 03-3844 Throughout the summer and fall of 1997, Evans saw fit to fail to appear in Cook County Court on numerous occasions relating to the drug charges brought against him during the summer, i.e., his May 12, 1997, June 8, 1997 and July 14, 1997 arrests, and by December of 1997, Evans had five warrants pending for his arrest. At some point in early December 1997, in order to avoid apprehension, Evans decided to turn himself into Judge Haberkorn, the Cook County Circuit Court Judge handling all of his criminal cases. Judge Haberkorn ordered a deputy to immediately transport him to the Cook County Jail at 26th and California, where he remained until March 17, 2000, approximately 28 months in all.