Cook County judge denies extension on stoppage of police discipline cases

A Cook County judge on Monday denied an effort by the city’s largest police union to extend a pause on pending disciplinary cases before the Chicago Police Board.

The ruling from Judge Michael Mullen came after an hour of arguments from attorneys for the city and Fraternal Order of Police. Disciplinary cases before the Police Board — 21 in all — were paused late last month after the City Council again voted to reject a provision of the tentative police union contract concerning the most serious police misconduct allegations.

Attorneys for the city, meanwhile, told Mullen that no Police Board evidentiary hearings will be held until at least March 25, five days after Mullen is expected to rule on whether or not the arbitration award issued to the FOP will be enforced.

However, if evidentiary hearings are scheduled before March 20 in any pending cases, Mullen told attorneys for the FOP to file an emergency motion to stay proceedings.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Police Board President Kyle Cooper said the body “will now resume hearing and deciding disciplinary cases against Chicago police officers, as is our duty under the Municipal Code of Chicago.” Status hearings in two pending cases are scheduled for March 1 and 5, respectively.

The now-expired freeze on Police Board cases came in late January after the City Council once again voted down a provision of the proposed FOP contract that would allow the most serious CPD misconduct cases to be heard and decided behind closed doors by a third party. That potential change, part of an arbitration award issued to the FOP during contract negotiations last summer, would upend more than 60 years of precedent in the city’s police discipline apparatus.

Edwin Benn, the arbitrator who oversaw the negotiations between the city and the union, said that CPD officers have the right to arbitrate discipline cases because they are public sector employees represented by a collective bargaining unit.

And while the City Council approved the lion’s share of the contract last year, which has since resulted in a slew of new misconduct charges against more than two dozen CPD officers, the arbitration award regarding serious misconduct has remained at an impasse.

James Franczek, the city’s chief labor negotiator, told Mullen that the city believes that arbitration “is not incompatible with the Police Board.” However, Franczek said, Benn’s decision to apply the arbitration award to already-filed Police Board cases was “arbitrary, capricious and violated public policy.”

“These cases for arbitration should be prospective, not retroactive,” Franczek said.

In arguing for an extension of the moratorium, FOP attorney Joel D’Alba cited several cases decided by the Illinois Supreme and Appellate courts that involved police officer disciplinary procedures. Those decisions, D’Alba said, make clear that “the Illinois courts have been very careful about removing … arbitration awards.”

Franczek noted that, in his decades representing the city in labor negotiations, this is the first time the FOP has said its members are entitled to arbitration in cases that would typically be adjudicated by the Police Board.

“It’s hard for the FOP to argue that the Police Board procedures are unfair … when they’ve agreed to it for 40 years,” Franczek said.

“The lodge started to exercise its rights,” D’Alba countered.

During last week’s monthly Police Board meeting, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling — while harshly criticizing the Civilian Office of Police Accountability — apparently endorsed the idea of police misconduct hearings remaining in full public view.

“I am a strong believer in transparency,” Snelling said. “I don’t believe anything needs to be done behind closed doors. The facts of a case should be spoken about openly.”

FOP attorney Tim Grace has represented CPD officers in Police Board cases since 2017. In an affidavit submitted to Mullen last week, Grace said the union’s latest motion to pause Police Board cases applied to 15 CPD officers currently facing disciplinary charges.

Of those 15 officers, Grace said, eight remain on no-pay status, and the delay in their disciplinary proceedings has caused them great hardship. Cook County court records show that at least two of those eight officers have quit CPD in recent months.

“If you lift the stay, they are back in business,” Grace said of the Police Board during Monday’s hearing.

More than 20 pending cases on the Police Board’s docket — with allegations ranging from improper use of deadly force to drug use to domestic abuse — have been paused while the legal fight proceeds. While the proposed contract’s disciplinary provision remains up in the air, the City Council last year unanimously approved all other aspects of the contract, including a 20% raise for CPD officers over four years.