After former Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found slumped over behind the wheel of his police SUV in October, he told Mayor Lori Lightfoot he had had a “couple of drinks” during a “dinner with friends.”
But an investigation by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson revealed that the former top cop spent the hours before he was found drinking at Ceres Cafe with a woman whom he had promoted as his security detail. Sources say the pair were seen kissing on security footage from the restaurant.
Multiple cops were under investigation for engaging in an alleged cover-up that took place that night and in the following days to protect Johnson and conceal the circumstances surrounding his drinking and driving incident.
Johnson initially blamed a change in his blood pressure medication and his failure to fill the replacement prescription for falling asleep in his car. But Lightfoot accused him of concocting a false narrative to conceal the embarrassing circumstances surrounding the incident, then “lying” to her when she questioned his version of events.
She fired him in December 2019 weeks before his scheduled retirement, and replaced him with interim Superintendent Charlie Beck.
Since then, Johnson has been sued for sexual assault and harassment by the woman he was having drinks with the night he was found in his car.
