Inspector General Joe Ferguson is interviewed earlier this year by Chicago Sun-Times City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman.
Rich Hein/Chicago Sun-Times
The bombshell allegation involving the police oversight agency is in Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s quarterly report.
An investigator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was accused Tuesday of conducting nearly 80 records searches that compromised probes involving the investigator’s brother, boyfriend and other members of the boyfriend’s family — all Chicago Police officers.
The bombshell allegation involving the police oversight agency that replaced the Independent Police Review Authority was included in Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s quarterly report summarizing misconduct cases over the previous three months.
It’s certain to damage the credibility of an agency still struggling in the wake of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
As always, Ferguson does not identify the accused COPA investigator, who no longer is employed by the city.
But the report accuses the investigator of conducting “over 77 improper searches” and also alleges they “improperly accessed records over 69 times” between December 2017 and January 2019.
The records searches occurred “without authorization” and compromised “COPA investigations involving the employee’s brother, boyfriend and the boyfriend’s family members, all of whom are police officers,” the report states.
The accused investigator “failed to disclose” the subjects of the investigations as conflicts of interest, the inspector general said.
After Ferguson launched his investigation, the accused COPA employee allegedly made matters worse by sending an anonymous complaint to the inspector general’s office from a city computer while on the clock.
“The investigator falsely claimed that a co-worker had carried a gun to the COPA office and planned to commit a mass shooting,” the quarterly report states.
The inspector general’s office “determined that the complaint was false and sent in retaliation against the co-worker, whom the investigator suspected of cooperating” with Ferguson, the report states.
The now-former COPA investigator has since been charged with felony disorderly conduct and felony official misconduct.
Those same charges in early January were filed against COPA investigator Alison Yohanna.
At the time, Yohanna was accused of writing a bogus email that one of her coworkers carries firearms and would commit a mass shooting, starting at the intake room of the COPA offices. The allegations about illegal searches were not outlined at that time.
Ferguson recommended that the COPA investigator be fired and placed on the city’s do-not-hire list. But when the accused investigator appealed the firing, the city settled the case by allowing the investigator to resign, the report states.
COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy had no immediate comment on the investigation.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Ferguson’s investigation raises “concerning” questions about personnel and controls at the agency charged with investigating wayward police officers.
The mayor conducted a conference call with reporters while in New York to attend the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
“Any time that there’s serious allegations like this, it gives people pause. It’s gonna be incumbent upon Sydney Roberts and her leadership team to demonstrate that the organization is, in fact, operating with integrity despite, what sounds like some serious issues with one investigator,” the mayor said.
“I don’t want to condemn — nor will I — the entire organization because of the actions [of one person]. But it does raise some questions about that person and what controls are in place so there aren’t abuses. ... It raises questions that have to be addressed — not only about the individuals, but also about the policies and practices that were in place that would allow this kind of access, seemingly unchecked. So, there’s work to be done.”
Ferguson went out of his way to applaud the Chicago Police Department for its “through and expeditious response” to the COPA investigation.
But, CPD did not escape embarrassment in the IG’s second-quarter report, which also includes the case of a Chicago police officer accused of padding his paycheck.
The officer fraudulently claimed to be working for the city and a private security firm employed by the Chicago Housing Authority at the same time.
During 2013, the officer reported working more than 2,343 hours for the private security firm; that would average 45 hours a week in addition to a full-time, 40-hour per week position with CPD, Ferguson said.
“OIG’s analysis of time sheets from 2012 and 2013 uncovered over 500 hours when the officer reported being on the clock for CPD and the private security firm at the same time,” the report states.
After a follow-up investigation by the Bureau of Internal Affairs, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson recommended in June that the officer be fired. The matter is now before the Chicago Police Board.
