June 18--A judge on Wednesday convicted a veteran Cook County Jail correctional officer in an unprovoked attack on a detainee that was captured on a security camera.
Rico Palomino, a 12-year veteran at the time of the June 2012 incident, swallowed hard as Judge Lawrence Flood found him guilty of one count of aggravated battery and two counts of official misconduct, all felonies, after a two-day bench trial. Palomino faces from two to five years in prison but is also eligible for probation. No sentencing date was set.
Palomino was suspended without pay after the incident, but with his conviction, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart said the office will now seek to fire him.
Palomino, 43, declined to comment after the judge announced the guilty verdict, but during the two-day bench trial, he testified that he was defending himself against the inmate, identified as Rafael Aleman.
But in his ruling, the judge said that the video clearly showed Aleman had his hands down when Palomino struck him once in the face, knocking him to the floor.
The judge also acquitted Palomino on one count of aggravated battery and two counts of official misconduct.
Aleman, who was being processed at the jail on a misdemeanor charge alleging he violated an order of protection, needed five to 10 stitches to close a wound in his mouth.
Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Aleman said he was pleased with the judge's ruling but wasn't sure charges would have been brought without the video recording capturing the punch.
Aleman, of Orland Park, said he didn't know why Palomino struck him.
"I feel happy," Aleman, now 23, said of the verdict.
A lawsuit filed by Aleman against Palomino, the sheriff and Cook County was settled in 2012 for an undisclosed amount, court records show.
Prosecutors have described Palomino as about 6-foot-5 and 325 pounds and said he towered over Aleman and outweighed him by about 100 pounds. An online law-enforcement boxing site at the time identified Palomino as its past heavyweight champion.
The single punch by Palomino was seen by sheriff's officers who were doing a routine check of recordings from security cameras. The evidence was forwarded to internal affairs, which alerted the state's attorney's office.
A sheriff's office spokesman at the time said Palomino had no significant disciplinary history before the alleged attack.
According to prosecutors, Aleman left the bullpen in the jail's Division 5 receiving area to obtain a phone number from property of his that had been inventoried. He stopped at a desk where Palomino was stationed to ask him where the property was kept.
As Aleman walked away, Palomino told him to return to the bullpen, warning, "If you don't get back over here, I am going to (expletive) you up," prosecutors said.
As Palomino stepped from his desk, Aleman turned around and started to walk back toward the bullpen, prosecutors said. But Palomino struck him in the face, knocking Aleman to the floor and bloodying his mouth, they alleged.
Prosecutors charged that Palomino threatened to report that Aleman had tried to escape if he didn't say he swung first.
The recording shows Aleman never made any aggressive movements, prosecutors said.
sschmadeke@tribpub.com
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