Mau Shatters Black Driver's Window, Gets Reprimand After Incident

JOLIET, IL — One of the most controversial Joliet police traffic stops in recent years — an incident shared on YouTube that sparked several Black residents to air their concerns about racial profiling and excessive force to Joliet's City Council, resulted in a sustained internal affairs complaint for Officer Bob Mau Jr.

Joliet's Deputy Police Chief Ed Gregory stated, "that on July 13, 2018, while on a traffic stop in the area of the 100 block of Third Avenue, you neglected to inform the violator of the reason for the traffic stop ... and on the basis of the available evidence has been found to be sustained. The written reprimand reminded Mau he must "Explain the reason for the traffic stop to the violator."

"The majority of violators contacted by police personnel are ordinary citizens who may form their entire opinion of the Police Department from one encounter on a traffic stop. Members should keep this and all safety precautions in mind during a traffic stop," Mau's reprimand noted.

On Monday, Mau's sergeant's promotion vote was delayed by the city's police and fire board. Days earlier, Joliet Patch published an in-depth article on Mau's 2011 arrest and battery conviction. Mau followed his ex-fiancee to a house in Joliet. He beat the man she was kissing in her car. Mau's attack put the man in the hospital with a broken nose, head injuries and other facial injuries. The ex-fiancee had broken off her engagement with Mau seven months prior.

Mau, whose father is a retired Joliet police officer, drew a 120-day work suspension, but was allowed to remain a Joliet cop. He also lost a civil lawsuit filed by the victim and was ordered to pay him nearly $56,000.

Now, 10 years later, he's up for a sergeant's promotion.

Mau Won't Discuss Reprimand Case

On Thursday, a Joliet police spokesman said Mau would not be making any comments about the July 2018 traffic stop that drew a written reprimand from a deputy chief. Instead, current Police Chief Bill Evans issued a lengthy statement regarding the matter:

“On July 13, 2018, at 11:09 p.m., Officers Mau and his partner conducted a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Malibu in the 200 block of Sherman Street for disobeying a stop sign. The officers had to aggressively apply their brakes on their squad car to avoid contacting the other vehicle.

"During the stop, Officer Mau made numerous commands for (Milton) Travis to roll the window down all the way due to the vehicle’s heavily tinted windows, to which Travis refused. Travis also refused to exit the vehicle, despite Officer Mau giving him numerous lawful orders to do so. Officer Mau indicated to Travis that he was under arrest. Due to Travis’ refusal to follow lawful orders to exit the vehicle, Officer Mau used his extendable baton to break the vehicle window to effect the arrest of Mr. Travis. Travis was placed into custody after struggling with officers."

Evans noted that two other passengers, Maurice Bass, then 23, and Deandra Robinson, then 19, struggled with Joliet police as well. Bass was tased by Mau after continuing to struggle with officers after refusing to submit to an arrest.

"Following the incident, Officer Mau was given a written reprimand after failing to indicate the reason for the stop to the driver," Evans announced Thursday.

Will County court records indicate Travis and Bass were each charged with two misdemeanors as co-defendants. Under plea agreements, Bass and Travis were each convicted of resisting arrest and their other charge got dismissed. Prosecutors did not charge Robinson with any crimes and the 16-year-old juvenile in the car was not arrested.

"It is important to remember that this situation could have been avoided had these individuals followed lawful orders given by police officers, as this interaction was unnecessarily escalated by Mr. Travis and the other occupants of the vehicle," Evans announced Thursday.

Mau's Traffic Stop Preceeded Attorney General's Investigation

Mau's late night traffic stop of four young Black residents for stopping over the white line at an east-side intersection happened three years before Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an unlawful policing investigation of the Joliet Police Department, in September 2021.

Now a year later, Raoul's investigation remains ongoing.

"Why'd You Pull Me Over?"

On Sept. 23, 2021, several of Raoul's lawyers held a virtual town hall meeting for Joliet residents. Patch reported at the time that "The days of Joliet Police Department officers and their supervisors condoning the use of excessive force against the citizens or Joliet officers making up phony reasons to target minority residents for traffic stops and arrests are a thing of the past, according to several lawyers who work for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul."

In the video from the Sherman Street traffic stop, here are the key moments that led to the violent confrontation initiated by Mau:

Mau, who was on patrol with Officer Cassie Socha as his partner, saw a silver Chevy Malibu come to a sudden stop on Third Avenue at the stop sign.

Even though Mau did not have a stop sign on Sherman Street, Mau stopped his squad car in the middle of the intersection to make Travis go in front of him. After Travis turned in front of Mau, the officer turned on the flashing lights. Travis stopped in the alley on Sherman Street.

"Why don't you roll down the all the windows?" Mau asked the driver. "Why don't you roll the window down? I can't see."

Travis replied, "Why'd you pull me over? That's what I want to know."

"Why don't you roll the window down?" Mau repeated.

"Why? No!" Travis responded. "I'm not rolling my window down. Why'd y'all pull me over?"

"Why don't you roll the window down?" Mau asked a fourth time.

"Y'all don't have probable cause," Travis insisted.

"Yeah I do," Mau said.

"What? What's the probable cause?" Travis wondered.

Mau grabbed his portable police radio and said, "Subjects being kind of difficult."

Then, Mau informed Travis, "I can't hear you. Can you roll down your window?"

Officers Mau, Socha Told They're Being Recorded

For a third time, Travis said, "You had no probable cause to pull me over."

Mau asked Travis to get out of the car. "Why don't you step out?"

"What?" Travis inquired.

"Why don't you step out?"

"No!" Travis told Mau.

"Yeah!" Mau responded.

"No, I'm not stepping out," Travis vowed.

Robinson, the 19-year-old woman in the car, told Mau and Officer Cassie Socha, "I'm recording this, OK? So don't try anything. Why don't you give us a reason why you pulled us over?"

"I can't understand a word you're saying," Mau told Robinson.

Realizing Mau's squad car has a dash camera recording them, Socha spoke up. "I know you're being recorded, too. Thank you."

Socha had been standing on the passenger's side, shining her flashlight into the car.

Mau asked Robinson if she had identification.

"She's the passenger. I am the driver," Travis reminded Mau.

"I don't care. She's not wearing a seat belt."

"I just took my seat belt off," Robinson told Mau.

"I didn't see that."

Tensions continue to escalate as Mau refuses to tell the young Black residents why he stopped them.

"You don't have probable cause, do you? You don't have no probable cause to pull me over," Travis shouted.

Mau moved his hand and began to tap his holster.

"You don't have to reach for your gun, your Mace or none of that because I don't have anything," Travis remarked.

"All right. Why don't you step out of the car?" Mau said.

"No! I'm not stepping out of the car," Travis repeated.

"Yes. Step out of car," Mau commanded. "I'm giving you a lawful order to step out of the car."

That's when Robinson spoke up again. "Probable cause, please?"

"I'm not stepping out of the car," Travis reminded Mau.

Mau Vows To Break Driver's Side Window

Mau grabbed his portable police radio. "Would you make another note? Subject is refusing to step out of the car."

Mau then declared, "I'm going to ask you one more time to step out of the car or you're gonna be under arrest. Step out of the car!"

As she kept filming the incident, Robinson said, "Check this out, check this out, I'm under arrest."

"Step out of the car," Mau told the driver. "Step out of the car."

Travis raised his voice at Mau, "You ain't have no probable cause."

"Yes, I did," Mau answered.

"No, you didn't! You got behind me. You could've went. You got behind me because you wanted to be an a*****e. That's what you've been."

"Step out of the car," Mau repeated.

"No, I'm not going to step out of the car."

Mau tried to open the driver's door, but it's locked.

"Step out of the car," Mau says again.

Mau grabbed his police radio to advise fellow officers, "We're in the alley, Osgood and Sherman."

Driver Tells Mau "Break The Window Then"

"What? A backup? You ain't got a probable cause," Travis insisted.

"Why don't you step out of the car?" Mau repeated.

"No!" F*** me. You ain't pulling me over for nothing, for no reason. You could've went. You got behind me for what? Being racist and s**t."

"No, I'm not," Mau replied. "Step out of the car."

"No!"

"You're under arrest."

"No, I'm not. No!"

"I'm gonna break this window," Mau warned Travis. "Step out of the car or I'm gonna break the window."

"Break the window then."

Four times, Mau repeated for Travis to step out of the car or Mau will break his window.

"Break the window. You're gonna be paying for it then you white b***h," Travis shouted back.

Mau ordered Travis to step out of his car one final time.

Travis won't do it.

Mau Smashes Window, Pulls Travis From Car

Two more Joliet squad cars arrived in the alley as Mau grabbed his radio.

"Note, I have informed the driver he's under arrest for obstructing. He's refusing to exit. I'm gonna break the window."

Again, Mau tried to open the driver's door without success. Then he took a baseball batter's stance and rapidly swung his police baton about five times at the driver's window. He then took a couple more swings to knock out the remaining broken glass.

As Mau opened the driver's door, the female passenger screamed. Mau grabbed the driver and pulled him toward the gravel and dirt near the alley, but Travis kept his balance and hollared, "What'd you break my window for?"

"Get down!" Mau yelled as he put Travis into a headlock.

"What'd you break my window for, though?" Travis repeated.

According to police reports, once Mau took Travis to the ground, another officer who just arrived hit Travis' thigh several times with his own baton because "Officer Mau informed (Travis) he was under arrest multiple times and (Travis) refused to exit the vehicle and was extracted. He then refused to get down as instructed ... and did not put his hands behind his back ..."

While being hit several times on the ground with the other officer's baton, Travis writhed in pain, according to video of the incident.

"Ow! Jesus! I'm not resisting. I'm not doing nothing."

Mau later indicated he performed "a hard take down" on Travis, who suffered lacerations to his right wrist and left cheek. "Told Travis to roll window down four times, step out of car 14 times, informed him he was under arrest and warned that window would be broken. Ordered out of vehicle, but refused. Told to get on the ground."

While Mau and the other officer were on the ground handcuffing Travis, Mau leapt up and ran toward the silver Malibu. He saw backseat passenger Maurice Bass scuffling with another responding officer as they were in a bear hug. "Stop resisting!" Mau shouted as he fired his Taser at the 23-year-old man's back. Two of Mau's Taser probes penetrated Bass' skin.

Mau grabbed his portable radio to announce, "Taser deployment."

Bass fell to the ground and was subdued. He was handcuffed and put into the backseat of Mau's squad car. Police reports from Mau's Taser deployment identified Bass as an aggressive and hostile passenger who was resisting being placed into custody by Officer Phil Miller.

As for the other two passengers, Socha used several hard leg strikes to the upper left leg of Robinson, because "Robinson continued to scream and yell at officers, tell them she wasn't going to comply, attempted to interfere with the arrest of subjects."

The 16-year-old boy being held down another officer in the grass was released back to his mother after Mau finished talking with her. The boy lived nearby.

No Drugs, Guns Found Inside Chevy Malibu

After being handcuffed, Travis inquired, "why y'all doin this s**t, man?"

"I asked you to step out of the car multiple times," Mau replied.

"For what? You're pulling me over for no reason," Travis remined Mau.

"I can't see inside your car," Mau said. "I don't know what you have."

"I don't have nothing," Travis snapped. "I told you. I didn't have nothing. I don't carry a gun."

"I don't know that," Mau replied.

Eventually, Mau encountered, Bass, the man he just tased, now handcuffed in his backseat.

"What am I going to jail for?" Bass asked.

"I believe, resisting," Mau said.

"It's my birthday today, man. My birthday. I got tased for nothing. It's my birthday."

During the next several minutes, Mau and several officers took turns searching the car and the trunk. Police find no drugs or signs of drug activity. Nobody in the car had any guns. Nobody in the car was smoking marijuana, either.

"And it smells like just apple juice," Mau told other officers.

Mau later received word through the National Crime Information Center database, commonly called NCIC, that Travis was clean. He had no warrants for his arrest.

Mau also became aware the license plates for the car were valid.

And upon learning Travis had a valid driver's license, Mau left his squad car to tell another officer, "He had a valid license, too. This guy gets in all this for nothing."

Meanwhile, over the coming days, several members of Joliet's Black community descended on City Hall to draw attention to the controversial traffic stop.

At that point, Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton had kept Mau's name out of the public spotlight. Nobody in the community knew the identity of the officer who made the traffic stop, shattered the car window and left three young people with injuries all over a questionable stop sign violation in which Mau refused, over and over, to give Travis the reason he pulled him over.

"My concern here is possible police brutality, abuse of authority and failure to gain and maintain trust with the people of color here in Joliet, Illinois," Minister Mary White told the City Council that July. "We live in a city of excitement because we are a city of hope, justice and peace for all people where police brutality, abuse of authority and failure to gain and maintain trust with people of color and all people must not be tolerated at any level."