Stateville Prison Correctional Officer Claims Racism By Bolingbrook Cops

A Stateville correctional officer said racist Bolingbrook cops repeatedly arrested him on false charges and called his bosses at the prison numerous times in hopes of getting him fired.

The officer, Henry Godfrey, sued five Bolingbrook cops and the Village of Bolingbrook in federal court. His lawsuit described all five officers are “caucasian.”

Godfrey, 46, said he moved to Bolingbrook 13 years ago. After about 10 years there, he said, the local cops kept pulling over his friends, including a Chicago police officer, as they left his house.

Troubled by this, Godfrey said he sent a certified letter to Mayor Roger Claar. Claar never replied, he said, but the police responded by arresting him at least three times and launching an intense effort to get him fired.

“I’ve almost lost my job four times,” Godfrey said, recalling that the allegations against him included the claim he had stolen Drew Peterson’s prison identification bracelet.

In his lawsuit, Godfrey alleges that Bolingbrook, “by and through its white and caucasian police department, permits and allows the harassment, intimidation, and false arrests of African American residents of Bolingbrook.”

The suit also said Bolingbrook “failed to properly institute policies that prevent racial harassment and intimidation of African American citizens” and also failed to “properly train its police officers to make police reports that do not contain false allegations against African American citizens,” among other things.

Claar ducked a telephone call and village attorney Jim Boan spoke in his stead. Boan would not discuss the lawsuit.

“We don’t make comments on pending litigation,” he said. “It will play out in federal court.”

The police department’s spokesman, Lt. Carter Larry, also said he could not discuss pending litigation.

Godfrey’s attorney, John Schrock, said he brought the civil action after hearing Godfrey’s story and deciding “it seemed like an injustice has been done here.”

Godfrey said he has been “called everything under the sun,” including the N word, during his encounters with the Bolingbrook police. He also said on one occasion, when he proclaimed his innocence, an officer told him, “That’s the same thing Mike Brown said,” referencing the teen shot to death last year by Ferguson, MO, Police Officer Darren Wilson.

“I just keep my head up,” said Godfrey, who told of plans to move his family from Bolingbrook to Plainfield.

“The final straw was when I was in the Will County jail,” he said. “It was embarrassing. I was sitting on that concrete slab thinking, ‘I didn’t do anything.’”

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