LGBTQ center’s private security firm, owned by local cop involved in racist incident, draws opposition

Jamie Frazier (second from right), lead pastor at Lighthouse Church of Chicago, with supporters of the Lighthouse Foundation, an anti-racist LGBTQ group. | Jake Wittich/Sun-Times

The city’s largest LGBTQ center is facing heat for employing a controversial security firm owned by a Chicago police officer accused of racism.

The Center on Halsted’s long-time private security provider, Walsh Security, is owned by 19th District police officer Thomas Walsh; he was accused of attacking a black security guard at a Boystown bar and repeatedly calling him the N-word while off-duty in 2013, according to Cook County Circuit Court records.

The guard allegedly suffered a rotator cuff injury from the incident.

Walsh Security’s relationship with the center has drawn controversy as far back as 2012, when the Windy City Times reported it was operating without proper licensing and that the guards’ uniforms were too similar to on-duty police officers.

The Center on Halsted, which provides health and well-being services to LGBTQ youth and adults and attracts more than 1,000 visitors every day, paid the security firm more than $130,000 last year, tax records show.

Jamie Frazier, lead pastor at Lighthouse Church of Chicago and founder of the Lighthouse Foundation, spoke at the September Chicago Police Board hearing on Thursday, asking the board to make a decision in CPD Officer Thomas Walsh’s police accountability case from 2013.

“The Center on Halsted has amassed great financial resources in the name of LGBTQ equality and racial equity, so now we expect them to embody their stated values” by firing Walsh Security, said Jamie Frazier, lead pastor at Lighthouse Church of Chicago and founder of the Lighthouse Foundation, an LGBTQ group.

The Lighthouse Foundation was formed by black LGBTQ activists who protested in May after a tumultuous Memorial Day weekend in Boystown that included Progress Bar trying to ban rap music and costume shop Beatnix selling a Confederate flag vest.

Walsh’s alleged attack on the security guard, James Matthews, occurred Nov. 29, 2013, at the Lucky Horseshoe Lounge, 3169 N. Halsted St.

Matthews sued Thomas Walsh, the Lucky Horseshoe Lounge and the city in 2015, seeking at least $75,000, according to Cook County Circuit Court records.

In December 2014, Walsh, speaking to investigators from the Independent Police Review Authority, denied laying hands on Matthews, according to transcripts of those interviews filed in the lawsuit.

Walsh told investigators he was being attacked by another bar patron when Matthews approached from behind and put his arm around Walsh’s neck.

In Matthews’ statement to investigators, which also was filed in the lawsuit, he said he tried to intervene when he saw Walsh punch another patron in the face, and that’s when Walsh attacked him.

The Lucky Horseshoe Lounge, a Boystown bar where Officer Thomas Walsh allegedly attacked a black security guard in 2013 and repeatedly called him the N-word, according to court records.

“I just turned with my body [...] and shrugged ’em off me, whoever it was. Never put hands on ’em. Never punched ’em,” Walsh told investigators.

Walsh then admitted using “some profanity,” adding, “I did call ’em a [N-word], which I regret.”

Matthews settled the lawsuit with Walsh for an undisclosed amount in 2018, according to court records. Matthews also received $2,000 in workers’ compensation from the Lucky Horseshoe Lounge, but nothing from the city. The court ruled Matthews’ workers’ compensation payment and settlement with Walsh released the bar and the city from liability.

Despite the settlement, IPRA’s investigation remains under review by the Chicago Police Department, according to city records.

Walsh said he could not comment as the case is still under investigation.

Frazier, along with Virginia White, pastor for outreach at Root and Branch Church in Logan Square, and Sarah Lusche, co-pastor at Hyde Park Union Church, all spoke at the Chicago Police Board meeting Thursday to call for the board to make a decision in Walsh’s case. Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, who attended the meeting, said it was his first time hearing about the case but would look into it.

Complete files from IPRA’s investigation were not immediately available, but the Sun-Times has requested them from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which succeeded IPRA in 2017.

According to records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Walsh Security obtained its private security contractor license in 2014, about a year and a half after the Windy City Times reported it was operating without the proper license.

Kim Fountain, chief operating officer at the Center on Halsted, said there was some trial-and-error when Walsh Security was hired, but the firm “has responded to every request.” That included Thomas Walsh attending anti-racism training after details on the Lucky Horseshoe incident came out.

Walsh Security also obtained its private security contractor license in 2014, according to records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

In response to the early criticism, Fountain said Walsh agreed his guards would no longer carry guns or wear uniforms. She said he also complied with the center’s request to diversify his security team to more closely reflect the LGBTQ community.

“When I talked to [Walsh] about [the Lucky Horseshoe incident], he said, ‘I used some language.’ I told him that he used racist language, and he said, ‘I used racist language. Yes, I did,’” Fountain said. “He’s able to take responsibility for those things and understand why what he did was wrong.”

Frazier said the training and other changes don’t justify keeping Walsh.

“Officer Thomas Walsh — after what happened in 2013, as well as his multiple years of incompetence — should be fired,” Frazier said.

Jamie Frazier, lead pastor at Lighthouse Church of Chicago and founder of the Lighthouse Foundation, delivered a letter to the Center on Halsted on Sept. 3 demanding that it drop its private security firm, Walsh Security.

Frazier’s group delivered a public letter to Center on Halsted CEO Modesto Tico Valle on Sept. 3, requesting a meeting to discuss new security strategies.

In a response dated Sept. 4, delivered to the Lighthouse Foundation on Sept. 12, Valle agreed to meet with Frazier and noted the center reviews operations every year, with staff and patron input.

“We stand together on common goals,” Valle said.

According to Fountain, the organization was already “looking for other alternatives” to Walsh Security before the Lighthouse Foundation’s protests.

“I’m not going to pull [Walsh] out and put a temp agency in there. These kids rely on his security guards,” Fountain said. “Why would I take a group of primarily youth of color experiencing homelessness who have developed solid, good relationships with security officers and say, ‘I’m pulling them out of your life.’”

She added that the center is committed to addressing racism, both at the facility and within the larger LGBTQ community. She said it tried to engage the Lighthouse Foundation in that conversation, but the group declined.

Center on Halsted CEO Modesto Tico Valle responded to the Lighthouse Foundation’s letter agreeing to a meeting about the facility’s security.

According to Fountain, the Center on Halsted added racial equity and inclusion to its strategic plan two years ago and created a director of racial equity and inclusion position to oversee that work. A consultant was hired to collect staff feedback and form an equity leadership group. And the center shut down for two days in May for a staff-wide equity development meeting.

“My whole point of having these discussions isn’t to say the Center on Halsted is a beacon of racial equity and inclusion ... but we are really aspiring to do this work well and correctly,” Fountain said.

But Frazier said Center on Halsted developed its equity and inclusion policy without input from the people who are most affected. He also noted the center’s racial equity and inclusion director, Shana Jones, resigned in July after just a few months on the job.

“The center needs to be engaging and seeking external accountability from the victimized community,” Frazier said. “Since Officer Walsh physically assaulted a black man and called him the N-word several times, then it is from the black queer community that they should seek counsel.”

The Center on Halsted, located at 3656 N. Halsted St., is the largest LGBTQ center in the Midwest, serving more than 1,000 daily.

While a date for the meeting between Lighthouse and the center has not yet been set, Frazier said the Lighthouse Foundation will hold a news conference afterward to discuss it, adding that he hopes it will be a joint news conference with the Center on Halsted.

Frazier wants the center to recognize “it has been morally wrong to continue to employ Walsh Security.” But more than just firing them, he said, the center needs a new security strategy.

“What I don’t want to have happen is they fire Walsh Security and they hire another problematic, police-run security firm.”