Crime & Safety
Park Ridge Police Commander Found Not Guilty in 10-Year-Old Case
The suspects who claimed the commander beat them were lying to mitigate their own actions in the 2006 incident, judge says.
A Park Ridge police commander was found not guilty of aggravated battery official misconduct by a judge who called his accusers liars, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The charges against Cmdr. Jason Leavitt stem from a 2006 incident in which it was alleged that he beat two 15-year-old boys from Wilmette's Loyola Academy after they shot projectiles that broke the window of a car driven by Leavitt, who was off duty at the time, the report stated. The suspects claim Leavitt choked, punched and kicked them while they were in custody, the report added.
"The lies [they] tell are all aimed at mitigating their conduct that night," Judge Nicholas Ford said in addressing the suspects' claims, according to the Tribune.
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Ford initially threw out Leavitt's case in 2012, but a state appellate court reinstated it in 2014. The current trial ran three days starting May 26. In 2009, the City of Park Ridge settled a federal lawsuit filed by one of the suspects for $185,000, the Tribune reports.
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