Chicago Police Officers Win Again
After three years of litigation, on February 4, 2011, a federal jury confirmed that three Chicago tactical officers from the 10th District properly arrested Jeremy Venson for selling rock cocaine on the corner of 13th Street and Keeler. The case began on November 2, 2007, when Officers Lazaro Altamirano, Christopher Jania, and John O'Keefe arrested Mr. Venson after they heard him yelling "rocks, rocks" to passing vehicle traffic. Mr. Venson was found to be in possession of cocaine. Judge James Brown emboldened Mr. Venson when he made a finding of no probable cause at the preliminary hearing and the charges were dismissed. According to Assistant State's Attorney Eric Bashirian, the prosecutor assigned to Judge Brown's courtroom for the preliminary hearing, drug charges that involve only 0.1 or 0.2 grams are routinely dismissed in the Cook County Criminal Courts because it's impractical to bring every one of these cases to trial. The way these charges are dismissed, Mr. Bashirian says, is through a judicial finding of no probable cause. Even though Mr. Bashirian's testimony and Mr. Venson's extensive criminal background was excluded at trial, the jury read through it all and made its own finding: the defendant Officers clearly had probable cause to arrest Mr. Venson. The presiding judge was the Honorable Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of Illinois. Attorneys Irene Dymkar and James Bowers represented plaintiff Venson. Attorneys Shneur Nathan and Helena Wright of Andrew M. Hale & Associates represented the defendant Officers.
