Burr Ridge Defends 2 Cops Against YouTuber

BURR RIDGE, IL – A man who posted a YouTube video unjustly accused a couple of Burr Ridge officers of being drunk on duty last week, the mayor said Tuesday.

Mayor Gary Grasso posted a statement to the village's website about the nine-minute video, which has generated nearly 70,000 views.

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Last Wednesday, the man filmed Sgt. Ryan Husarik and Officer Timothy Lesniak in the parking lot at the County Line Square shopping center. Last April, then-Deputy Chief Husarik was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Virginia while he was in a squad car. He was later demoted.

At County Line Square, the YouTuber got in the way of Husarik's squad car, asking him to stop. Lesniak was in another car. Both officers got out, and the man repeatedly accused them of being drunk.

Immediately afterward, Husarik called Deputy Chief Kristopher Garcia to inform him of the incident, Grasso said. During the video call, Husarik administered a breath test as Garcia watched on, the mayor said. The test, Grasso said, showed Husarik had no alcohol in his system, the mayor said.

The accuser is anonymous, but over the last couple of years, he has posted more than 150 videos of police officers in the Chicago suburbs. In some cases, he becomes confrontational with them.

In his statement, Grasso said the man made an unwarranted 911 call to demand more officers, stating he had waited for police for two hours. The man further said he feared for his life, but the mayor said that assertion had no basis other than to fabricate a 911 incident.

The mayor said Lesniak and Husarik professionally de-escalated the situation and that they and the man went their separate ways.

Grasso called the man's allegations "patently manufactured and factually false."

"This was a staged set-up that will not be tolerated," he said. "The filming party is a known, self-proclaimed 'First Amendment auditor,' whose channel's sole purpose is to be confrontational and attempt to place local governments in compromising situations."

Grasso noted the man's questions to Husarik and his request for the spelling of the sergeant's name. Based on that, the mayor said, it was clear that the man would have accused whoever was on duty of misconduct.

Lesniak, Grasso said, then accurately informed the man he was making an improper 911 call with no existing emergency.

"The filming party demanded to be arrested in another staged attempt to likely claim his civil rights had been violated," the mayor said. "To their credit and training, the officers could not be baited to do so."

He said the village would defend its officers against false accusations.

"I have asked counsel to vigorously investigate legal action against the filming party for these actions," Grasso said.