For Immediate Release: November 1,
2002
For Information: 888.471.0874
Jury in Civil Suit Rules in Favor of Kentin Waits
Huge Punitive Penalty Sends Strong Message to Cops,
City
Following a seven-day civil
trial in the United States Court for the Northern District of Illinois, a jury
today found one Chicago police officer guilty of "excessive force" and another
guilty of failing to intervene in the July 23, 2000 beating of a gay Chicago
man, Kentin Waits.
The attack occurred in an interrogation room of
the 19th District police headquarters at Belmont and Western and was a focal
point for activism by the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, a gay direct-action
group, and the subject of a May 2001 report by the human rights organization
Amnesty International.
Waits was awarded $15,000 in compensatory damages
and $2 million in punitive damages, as the jury sent a clear message to the
Chicago Police Department as well as the two defendants that cop violence
against civilians ought not be tolerated. One of the defendants, Officer
Daniel Durst, was sentenced to $500,000 for beating Waits. The other defendant,
Sergeant Michael Prusank, a more than 20 year veteran of the force, was fined
$1,500,000 for failing to intervene to halt the assault on Waits. Waits
was represented by Jon Loevy and Michael Kanovitz of the law firm Loevy and
Loevy.
When asked about the settlement tonight, Waits said "I think it
sends a clear message to the city, and to Chicago police officers. I am sure
justice was served today."
The incident which precipitated the
gay-bashing began on Saturday, July 22, 2000 when Waits was driving in the
vicinity of the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field near game time. Waits asked an
officer directing traffic if he could make a right turn, but the officer yelled
obscenities at him and waved him on. Shortly thereafter, in what Waits
readily admitted was "a stupid mistake," he drove back to the intersection and
squirted water on the officer from a water bottle. For this incident, Waits pled
guilty to misdemeanor simple battery on August 30, 2000 and was placed on
supervision.
The brutal arrest and incarceration of Waits the following
morning, Sunday, July 23, is what precipitated the civil lawsuit which ended
yesterday in a $2 million verdict against the police. Throughout the trial
several police witnesses perjured themselves by claiming that Waits' arrest and
processing was "routine" and that if someone had squirted a civilian with water,
they would have reacted in the same manner. Yet of the more than 100
outstanding warrants on Sergeant Prusank's desk that Sunday morning for crimes
committed over the previous few days, he decided to make the arrest of Kentin
Waits his tactical team's top priority. Prusank then made the rare move of
requesting authorization to move his team out of their district to make the
arrest, then issued an "all call" for additional officers throughout the city to
join the arrest.
According to other police testimony, the tactical
team travels outside of the 19th district only about once a year, and city-wide
"all calls" are made only about once a week. When asked why he made the
offense of squirting an officer with water his top arrest priority of the day,
Officer Prusank testified that "I would have taken heat from above if I hadn't."
As Waits was being led from his home to a waiting police car, Officer
Durst told him that he was "sorry about the damage to your truck." Only
later did Waits learn what Durst meant by these remarks. Waits' vehicle
was towed to a Police pound, "ransacked" according to the city tow record, and
the transmission damaged, in an apparent act of retaliation for the previous
day's altercation with the traffic cop. On the way to the station,
Waits testified that he repeatedly apologized for squirting the officer the
previous day, but Officer Durst threatened, "We're a big family here. If
you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. Don't mess with the Chicago
Police Department."
When they arrived at the station, a crowd of officers
in the lobby applauded when Durst and Prusank led Waits inside. They led
Waits to a 10' x 10' interrogation room which had its one window covered with
newspaper, where Durst handcuffed Waits by both wrists to a railing on the
wall. While a hate crime charge was the one charge for which the jury did
not return a guilty verdict, Wait testified that Durst shouted "f---ing faggot"
and "cocksucker" as he repeatedly slapped Waits in the face and kneed him in the
groin. As Durst was taking Waits to the lock-up area, he said Waits might
be raped there while he was being held over night.
"The main thing that
was going through my mind was fear," said Waits. "I didn't know if the
assault that had just happened was the start of something that would be going on
all night. I didn't know if I'd be getting out anytime soon. I didn't know
if it would escalate."
After the beating, 23 hour incarceration
and damaging his truck all for simply squirting an officer with water, Waits
filed a complaint with the city's Office of Professional Standards (OPS), the
body charged with investigating police misconduct and making recommendations for
employment-related punishments. Eight months and many unreturned phone
calls later, the OPS did what it does in 95% of its cases, according to its own
statistics, and found in favor of the police. Criminal charges against the
police were never sought by Cook County States Attorney Dick Devine, whose
office has criminally prosecuted only one Chicago police officer for physical
brutality against a civilian since Devine was elected in 1996.
"As long
as Mayor Richard Daley fails to fire cops who beat up gays, African Americans,
Latinos and others, people like Kentin will be forced to seek redress in the
courts, with occasional big settlements like this," said Andy Thayer, co-founder
of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network (CABN). "As long as States Attorney
Dick Devine, the mayor's close ally, refuses to criminally prosecute brutal
police, it sends a dangerous message to the rank and file that anti-gay violence
is okay." Both Durst and Prusank remain employed by the Chicago Police
Department, and no disciplinary action has been taken against
them.
"Kentin Waits courageously stood his ground for more than two years
through an investigation and trial where the defense revictimized him by
attempting to put Kentin's personal life on trial," said CABN's Bob
Schwartz. "By standing his ground, Kentin Waits has sent a powerful
message that at least some gay people will not sit back when our community is
victimized. All of us should be proud of the example he has
set."
Waits' case is one of three police gay-bashing cases championed by
the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network that became the basis of the first-ever Amnesty
International reports about gay-bashing by police in the United States. More
information about Kentin Waits' case and other survivors of gay-bashing by
police can be found in the archives section of CABN's website, www.CABN.org
# # #
Chicago Anti-Bashing
Network
www.CABN.org
888.471.0874
Email: CABNstopthehate@aol.com
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