Aug. 11--A Chicago man has alleged in a federal civil rights lawsuit that Cook County probation officers and city police illegally searched his home, arrested him without cause and then walked away with his cash.
Michael Lipford, 59, said he suffered a stroke during the arrest and that "several hundred dollars" was missing from his home after the warrantless search, according to the suit.
The civil rights lawsuit is the second this year filed against the Cook County Circuit Court's probation department, which has come under scrutiny following a Tribune investigation that uncovered allegedly rogue units of armed officers conducting questionable and illegal searches that potentially violated the civil rights of probationers and others like Lipford.
"They tried to put me in jail. They tried to make me look like a crook," Lipford said Tuesday. "I hope they don't do this to nobody else like they did me."
Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who oversees the probation department, could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department declined to comment.
Lipford was not on probation in September 2013 when he said a team of at least six probation and police officers unexpectedly showed up at his West Side apartment. The officers told him they were there to check on his roommate, who was serving two years of probation for burglary.
During a search of the three-bedroom apartment, the officers went into Lipford's bedroom even though he had not given them consent, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
In his bedroom, officers found a 12-gauge and a 20-gauge shotgun, as well as boxes of ammunition, according to records.
Lipford previously told the Tribune that he objected as officers then used a crowbar to pry open a small safe, where they found a 9 mm handgun.
Lipford had let his firearm owner's identification card expire years earlier. A FOID card would allow him to legally have the guns and ammunition. Police charged him with multiple misdemeanors for illegally possessing guns and ammunition.
Lipford, who has since renewed his FOID card, fought the case, alleging that probation and police officers conducted an illegal search and that $850 cash went missing.
When his case went to trial last September, the judge found that officers exceeded their authority when, without a warrant, they pried open the safe. The 9 mm gun charge was dismissed.
The judge, however, found that the officers had lawfully seized the two shotguns and ammunition, prompting Lipford to go to a jury trial on those counts.
Lipford testified in his own defense, and two Chicago police officers testified for the prosecution. The jury was not told about the illegal search of the safe or Lipford's allegation of missing money. The jury deliberated for about a half-hour before finding Lipford not guilty.
"(Lipford) suffered damages as a result of being arrested without cause, made to await criminal trial for just over a year while worrying about whether he would be found guilty, which would lead to a criminal record and potential incarceration," the lawsuit states.
Lipford's complaint follows another federal lawsuit that was filed in April by former probationer Orangelo Payne, who alleged that Cook County probation officers conspired with the FBI and Chicago police to conduct illegal and warrantless searches in an unchecked hunt for drugs and guns. That case is ongoing.
Payne and Lipford's encounters with the probation department were spotlighted in the Tribune's 2014 investigation and are part of a review of the department that Evans ordered at the time.
The integrity of that more than yearlong review, however, was recently called into question when a key witness told the Tribune that a high-ranking boss at the center of the investigation had interfered by promising him a job and arranging for him to receive hundreds of dollars.
Evans, at the time, called the allegations against deputy chief Philippe Loizon disturbing and asked the lawyers looking at the department to investigate further.
Lavone Haywood, the chief probation officer, said Tuesday that both the review of the probation department, as well as the inquiry into the subsequent witness-tampering allegations are ongoing. Loizon remains on desk duty, said Haywood, who declined to comment on Lipford's lawsuit.
cdizikes@tribpub.com
tlighty@tribpub.com
Twitter @tlighty
