An ex-Chicago police officer who admitted taking thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for early access to the names of people involved in traffic accidents was sentenced Thursday to a year in federal prison.
Kevin Tate pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy in September 2019, admitting he took “not less than $10,000” from Richard Burton, who ran National Attorney Referral Service, while giving Burton details from 25 to 100 crash reports per month from 2015 until 2017.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle handed down Tate’s sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrianna Kastanek in a court memo last spring sought a sentence of as many as three years for Tate. She wrote that Tate’s crime was serious not because of the crash reports, “but in the significance of a police officer accepting a bribe in exchange for providing a member of the public with access to information intended, at that time, only for police use.”
“In this context, it was traffic reports,” Kastanek wrote. “In another context, it could have been other sensitive information whose disclosure could risk public or private safety. In exchange for private financial gain (and a relatively small amount of gain) [Tate] compromised his integrity, and public trust in police officers.”
Todd Pugh, one of Tate’s defense attorneys, wrote in a separate memo that punishment has already been leveled toward Tate through the loss of his job, the “unrepairable damage to his professional reputation, and the shame of ignoring the oath he took as a Chicago Police officer to uphold the law.”
Pugh wrote that Tate was fired following his guilty plea. A CPD spokesperson said Thursday that Tate is no longer an active member of the department.
Tate began his career as a Chicago police officer in 2005 and was repeatedly recognized by the department, Pugh wrote, including when he received a Life Saving Award for rescuing two children from a burning apartment building.
Burton, who pleaded guilty in June 2019 to a bribery conspiracy, has yet to be sentenced, records show. A second officer caught up in the scheme but charged separately, Milot Cadichon, was sentenced in November 2019 to 18 months in prison.
Federal prison records show Cadichon was released from custody in June.
