CHICAGO _ A veteran Chicago police officer was sentenced to 18 months in prison Monday in federal court for pocketing about $10,000 in bribes in return for leaking information about car crash victims to the owner of an attorney referral service.
Milot Cadichon, 47, broke into loud sobs as he asked U.S. District Judge Robert Dow for leniency.
"I know what I did was wrong, your honor," he said. "It was just a horrible act that I did, I shouldn't have done it. I don't know if it was caused by greed or just not thinking."
Cadichon pleaded guilty in August to one count of bribery, admitting to accepting at least $10,000 in kickbacks dating back to 2015. He is slated to report to prison in February.
Federal prosecutors alleged Cadichon and his fellow patrolman, Officer Kevin Tate, took bribes from Richard Burton, who owns National Attorney Referral Service based in west suburban Bloomingdale. Burton then used the information to solicit accident victims as clients for attorneys, according to prosecutors.
Burton pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit bribery and is cooperating with investigators, court records show. Tate pleaded guilty in September to the same charge and is awaiting sentencing.
Both Tate and Cadichon worked patrol in the Calumet District on the Far South Side and were stripped of their police powers after the criminal charges were brought in September 2018.
Police authorities likely will move to fire them following their sentences.
According to an FBI search warrant affidavit unsealed last year, Burton exchanged hundreds of text messages with Tate and Cadichon that included detailed information that only the police were supposed to be allowed to view.
At the time of the indictment, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called the allegations against Tate and Cadichon, if proved, a "disgraceful abuse" of the trust the public places in officers.
