Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Dan Mihalopoulos | WBEZ

John Poulos, Chicago cop whose fatal shootings of 2 men led to City Hall payouts, now running for Cook County judge

2023-12-08T13:15:00-06:00

John Poulos.

Sgt. John Poulos — whose career as a Chicago cop has been marked by two controversial fatal shootings and a push by the police superintendent to fire him in a misconduct case — is now running for judge in Cook County with the help of a Democratic Party insider and $500,000 in loans from his wife.

In 2013 and again in 2016, Poulos shot and killed a Black man, shootings that resulted in a total of about $2 million in legal settlement payments from City Hall to their families.

Though one of the men was unarmed, and experts said the other hadn’t drawn his gun, Poulos was cleared of wrongdoing by city investigations.

On Sept. 27, Poulos, who is a lawyer, filed paperwork launching his campaign committee. He since has filed petitions to run in Cook County’s new 20th judicial subcircuit, which covers a large swath of the North Side.

Poulos — who didn’t respond to an interview request — is assigned to the police department’s records inquiry section, with a salary of nearly $130,000 a year. He’s among four candidates vying for the judge’s seat in the March 19 Democratic primary.

Family members of the two men Poulos killed said they were troubled to learn he’s running for judge.

“I’m coming unraveled because I have to scratch the surface of that scab that had healed to a certain degree,” said Kenyatta Hill, the sister of Rickey Rozelle, whom Poulos shot to death during an off-duty incident more than a decade ago. “It’s like a slap in the face. I have to go out and look at this guy campaign and have a normal life — and my brother is dead.”

On Aug. 31, 2013, Poulos was walking home from Gamekeepers, his family’s now-shuttered bar in Old Town, when he came upon Rozelle.

Poulos told investigators he thought Rozelle was burglarizing a neighbor’s vacant apartment building in the 1900 block of North Lincoln Avenue, according to a report by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority. After Poulos said he announced himself as a cop and called 911, he said Rozelle threatened his life and lunged at him.

Poulos struck Rozelle, 28, and shot him, telling investigators he appeared to pull out “a shiny metallic object,” according to IPRA. The agency said police recovered “a large, chrome-colored watch” but no weapon.

Aldermen sign off on $4.5M in settlements tied to police wrongdoing

Poulos, who shot Rozelle with a revolver belonging to his brother, told authorities he hadn’t been drinking.

IPRA found Poulos’ use of force to have been in line with department policy.

In July 2014, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund named Poulos “officer of the month” for his actions that night.

Still, in July 2018, the Chicago City Council approved a $950,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his sister.

Sister wants feds to review fatal shooting by off-duty cop

Now, Hill said she questions whether Poulos could “rule without bias” if elected.

“He’s a murderer in my eyes, and I don’t think he’s fit to sit and rule on any case,” she said.

As Hill’s lawsuit was still making its way through the courts, then-First Deputy Supt. Kevin Navarro recommended that Poulos be promoted to sergeant.

Months later, on Nov. 23, 2016, Poulos fatally shot 19-year-old Kajuan Raye during a foot pursuit in West Englewood. Poulos was responding to a report of a battery when he saw Raye and tried to stop him, according to the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, IPRA’s successor agency. Poulos said Raye matched the description that had been given of the attacker and that he ran to the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, with the cop giving chase.

Poulos told COPA he fired twice when Raye turned and aimed a pistol at him, though the police initially couldn’t find a weapon.

Raye died of a single gunshot wound to the back.

Attorney for family of Kajuan Raye rejects COPA finding that his fatal 2016 shooting was justified

Three months later, a 911 caller reported that her son had found a handgun in front of her home on Marshfield.

COPA’s final report concluded it was “likely and reasonable” that Raye had been carrying that gun and “posed an immediate threat” to Poulos’ life.

When COPA cleared Poulos, Raye’s mother Karonisha Ramsey denied in August 2019 that her son had a gun.

Kajuan Raye, who was fatally shot by Chicago police Sgt. John Poulos in November 2016.

Provided

By then, she had filed a federal lawsuit against Poulos and the city.

Ramsey later acknowledged that her son was armed but said ballistics experts had found the gun was still in his jacket when the fatal shot was fired. In a court filing in January 2020, she said experts retained by her and by the city agreed the bullet “entered the victim from his back, traveled through his body and encountered the … firearm that was located in the breast pocket of the Pelle Pelle jacket.”

Kajuan Raye was armed but wasn’t pointing gun when he was killed by Chicago cop: experts

That March, a jury found that the shooting was unjustified and awarded Ramsey more than $1 million, including $11,586 to cover the teenager’s funeral costs.

Karonisha Ramsey, surrounded by family, stands outside Chicago Police Department headquarters on Aug. 2, 2019, to address the finding that the 2016 shooting of her son Kajuan Raye was justified.

Megan Nagorzanski / Sun-Times

She said the news that Poulos is running for judge brought back painful memories.

“He killed my son,” Ramsey said. “My son didn’t bother him. I can’t see how he can be running for anything. Before that, he killed another young boy.”

Michael Oppenheimer, Ramsey’s lawyer, said: “I find it offensive he’s actually running for judge. The people of Cook County do not need to be served by this man. He has already betrayed their trust in him by wrongfully killing another human being.”

While the shooting was under investigation, then-police Supt. Eddie Johnson sought to fire Poulos in connection to a disciplinary case that had fallen through the cracks a decade earlier. Poulos had failed to disclose he’d been arrested while applying to become a cop and that he’d held an ownership stake in his family’s bar after being hired, Johnson said in filing disciplinary charges with the Chicago Police Board in June 2017.

The initial investigation was completed in February 2007, but the underlying disciplinary recommendations weren’t acted on.

Cop who shot, killed Kajuan Raye was under investigation in 2004

Johnson pointed out that Poulos had been injured on the job in March 2002 and didn’t return to work until June 2010 and said the department didn’t serve cops with disciplinary charges while they were on leave.

Johnson couldn’t explain why the charges weren’t served when Poulos returned or why he was promoted to sergeant without the disciplinary matter being resolved.

After Poulos filed a motion to dismiss the disciplinary case, the board ruled in February 2018 that Johnson’s “lengthy and unexplained delay” in filing the charges violated a departmental policy affording cops the right to “thorough” and “prompt” disciplinary proceedings. The board, which was headed by soon-to-be-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, voted unanimously to throw out the case.

Poulos’ wife Marjorie is listed as his campaign treasurer and has lent his campaign committee $500,000, the only contributions that have been reported.

Poulos’ campaign committee is chaired by Tim Egan, the chief executive officer of Roseland Community Hospital, who ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the Chicago City Council from the 43rd Ward and now is the 2nd Ward Democratic committeeperson.

Egan didn’t respond to questions.

Poulos is running against attorneys Nickolas Pappas, Michael Zink and Nadine Wichern, chief of the civil appeals division for the Illinois attorney general’s office.

Opponents of Northwestern stadium sue city of Evanston

2023-11-30T12:28:27.698-06:00

A community member at an Evanston City Council meeting holds a sign against the construction and rezoning of Northwestern University’s Ryan Field stadium on Nov. 20.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Alleging elected officials bent laws and sold them out for “monetary contributions,” opponents of Northwestern University’s plans for a new football stadium filed a lawsuit against the city of Evanston on Thursday.

The complaint in Cook County Circuit Court seeks to overturn last month’s narrow vote in favor of allowing concerts and other commercial events at the rebuilt Ryan Field, near single-family homes in the northern suburb and neighboring Wilmette.

“The city acted unlawfully, harming residents and violating the public trust,” the opponents allege in a suit.

The most pointed criticism in the case targets first-term Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a former Illinois state lawmaker who cast the tie-breaking vote on Nov. 20 to permit Northwestern’s rebuilt stadium to be the site of concerts.

Northwestern has argued it needs revenue from the concerts to help pay for the estimated $800 million stadium project, and supporters of the plan say the university’s agreement with the city will funnel $157.5 million from Northwestern to local schools and community causes over 15 years.

But the plaintiffs in the newly filed and widely anticipated suit said Biss and City Council supporters of the plan “cast aside basic principles of zoning and, instead, chose to confer special advantage” on Northwestern, opening the way for “commercialization” of the stadium site.

“Mayor Biss and certain council members cut a backroom deal,” they added, “in exchange for monetary contributions from Northwestern.”

Critics said the litany of problems a new Northwestern stadium allegedly would cause are “intensive traffic congestion, lack of parking, noise pollution at levels violating state and local laws, litter, and public safety concerns, as well as adverse impacts on nearby property values.”

The plaintiffs include the Most Livable City Association, a nonprofit group in Evanston, and 13 homeowners who live within 500 feet of the stadium. Eight plaintiffs are Evanstonians; five live just north of Ryan Field, in Wilmette, according to court documents.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs are Robert N. Hermes, John T. Shapiro and Michael J. Kelly of the Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur LLP law firm in downtown Chicago.

The suit asks the court to force the city of Evanston to pay for the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

A city of Evanston spokesperson and Biss said they had not seen the lawsuit and so could not comment. A Northwestern spokesman said the university had no comment.

On the morning after the contentious council meeting where he sided with Northwestern, Biss sent a long letter to his constituents defending his decision and expressing his belief that the Ryan Field project would be a “generational investment” for the town.

Biss noted the community benefits agreement and said concerts would bring business to the city of 77,517 people on Lake Michigan, which has been roiled for months by the “town versus gown” controversy.

“I think Evanston needs to be willing to embrace change right now,” wrote Biss, who was elected in 2021. “Our economic challenges won’t be solved by staying the same as we’ve always been or trying to return to 2019. Finally, our progressive values and ambition require funding to realize, and we won’t be able to access that funding without unfairly burdening those who can least afford to pay — unless we embrace growth and new ideas.”

Northwestern wants to demolish 97-year-old Ryan Field, home of the Big Ten’s Wildcats, at 1501 Central St. It would rebuild the stadium in roughly the same spot, but with modern sound and lighting to accommodate concerts and other events. It would seat 35,000 for football and 28,500 for the maximum six annual concerts the new zoning allows.

A new stadium solely for Northwestern football and other university events would be fine, but concerts should not be held at the stadium, said retired Cook County Judge Andrew Berman, a member of the Most Livable City Association who supports the lawsuit against the city.

“Concerts are a whole different animal than football games,” said Berman, a 32-year Evanston resident. “We’re sorry it’s come to this. We wish Mayor Biss had done the right thing.”

He said Northwestern is a wealthy university that wants to maximize profit from the stadium by holding concerts, and Berman took issue with the city’s handling of the matter.

“We feel like we’ve been railroaded,” Berman said. “They essentially sold our rights — literally sold them.”

Chicago cops tied to Oath Keepers barred from testifying in court, Kim Foxx decides

2023-11-17T20:25:26.904-06:00

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cook County prosecutors have barred 10 Chicago cops from testifying in their cases after the officers appeared on the leaked membership list of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government group that played a key role in the U.S. Capitol riot in 2021.

The move by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office came just weeks after the officers were linked to the Oath Keepers in the WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project joint investigation of “Extremism in the Ranks.”

The series reported that 27 current and former members of the Chicago Police Department were found on the membership rolls of the Oath Keepers. Records show some have faced serious misconduct complaints, including for accusations of using excessive force and making racist comments.

The police department hasn’t taken disciplinary action against any of those cops, with officials deciding that joining such a group didn’t violate any departmental rules.

How the Chicago Police Department tolerates officers with ties to extremism and what’s being done about it

But Foxx’s office has added nine active-duty Chicago cops and one recently retired officer to its “Brady Giglio Do Not Call List,” which seeks to keep officers with questionable credibility from being called as witnesses. That means the 10 men will no longer be able to testify for prosecutors.

The list also includes Officer Robert Bakker, a close associate of the Proud Boys, and Officer Kyle Mingari, who was photographed wearing a Three Percenters mask while on duty at a racial justice protest in 2020.

Those far-right groups also were involved in the insurrection at the Capitol.

The decision this week by Foxx’s office to include officers linked to the Oath Keepers marks the latest fallout of the WBEZ-Sun-Times series.

Days after the stories were published last month, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked police Supt. Larry Snelling vowed to conduct a “stringent” new investigation into the officers.

Chicago’s top cop vows ‘stringent’ efforts to root out officers with extremist ties after investigation by WBEZ, Sun-Times

A civilian-led police oversight panel also urged Chicago’s independent inspector general, Deborah Witzburg, to conduct her own, broad probe into extremism within the police force, citing the recent series.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability said Witzburg had taken up that request during a public meeting Monday, when the panel also voted unanimously to approve a new policy banning officers from being actively involved in hate and extremist groups.

Defense could question cops’ credibility

The action taken by Foxx’s office indicates that prosecutors have seen enough already and think that cops’ extremist ties can taint their ability to prosecute cases those officers are involved in.

Spokespeople for Foxx’s office didn’t reply to requests for comment.

On its website, the state’s attorney’s office says: “The purpose of the Brady Giglio policy is to ensure both the integrity of prosecutions and protect a person’s right to due process by requiring prosecutors to disclose any evidence that could be favorable to the defense.

“This includes evidence that could be used to impeach the credibility of prosecution witnesses, including law enforcement officers.”

The Brady Giglio name is derived from landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings in two cases — Brady v. Maryland and United States v. Giglio — in which the high court ruled that prosecutors have a constitutional obligation to inform the defense about such issues with witnesses.

The nine active-duty officers who appeared on the Oath Keepers data rolls are: Sgt. Michael Nowacki, Detective Anthony Keany and Officers Phillip Singto, Alberto Retamozo, Matthew Bracken, Bienvenido Acevedo, Dennis Mack, Alexander Kim and John Nicezyporuk.

Unlike many other extremist groups, the Oath Keepers’ membership rules bar anyone advocating “discrimination, violence or hatred toward any person based upon their race, nationality, creed, or color.” But some Chicago officers who appeared on the group’s membership list have faced accusations by members of the public of racist policing.

Nowacki got a three-day suspension in 2007 after he replied to Englewood community activist Deborah Payne’s email request for charitable donations by telling her, “I have no desire to help inner city poor people.” Payne called for Nowacki to be fired after learning of his Oath Keepers’ ties.

Nicezyporuk was accused by Black men of using racial slurs during traffic stops on two occasions but denied it and was not disciplined. In one case, Nicezyporuk’s accuser said the incident on the West Side in 2014 left him “scared to be around white people like that …. Especially white cops.”

Nowacki, Nicezyporuk and most other current officers on the list did not reply to requests for comment. Retamozo told the Sun-Times last month he was appalled by what the Oath Keepers has become since he signed up years ago.

And Bracken said in an interview that he had not identified with the group in over a decade and did not attend meetings or pay membership fees, though the leaked data listed him as a dues-paying member through 2015.

CPD has faced criticism

Former Officer Christopher Hoffman, retired in 2022 while being investigated for ties to the Oath Keepers, also was placed on the Brady Giglio list by Foxx’s office.

Hoffman avoided discipline several years ago after a Black colleague accused him of making racist comments for years while working as an instructor at a police firing range. He was named in a half dozen other complaints that said he and his partners used racial slurs, but he wasn’t reprimanded in those cases, either.

The police department has faced criticism for its handling of its investigations involving officers linked to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. The inspector general’s office pushed the department to reopen those investigations and one targeting Mingari connected to the Three Percenters. But all of the officers involved remain with the department.

The police Bureau of Internal Affairs previously closed an investigation into some of the cops linked to the Oath Keepers in November 2022, saying “memberships into organizations in itself is not a rule violation.” Yet internal investigators failed to obtain the full leaked membership data.

Police officials have said they did not know who all the officers on the Oath Keepers membership list were.

But records obtained by the Sun-Times and WBEZ show the Anti-Defamation League emailed the police department’s second-ranking official and provided the names of as many as eight Chicago police officers on the leaked rolls in August 2022.

Tom Schuba is a criminal justice editor for the Sun-Times. Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.

Policy barring Chicago cops from joining hate groups like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers OK’d by civilian oversight panel

2023-11-13T21:14:33.041-06:00

“We will continue our work to ensure that the Chicago Police Department effectively implements this policy, monitors the implementation and provides regular reporting on the outcome,” Remel Terry, a member of the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability, said at Monday’s hearing at Kennedy-King College.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

A civilian-led police oversight panel voted unanimously Monday to approve a new policy that would ban Chicago cops from “active participation” in hate and extremist groups.

The move came after the Chicago Police Department investigated, but took little or no action against officers who were found to have connections to extremist and anti-government groups, including Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Three Percenters.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability also announced Monday that the city’s Office of the Inspector General had reacted positively to its request to “investigate recent allegations of officer involvement with extremists or hate-based organizations.”

The panel’s outreach to Inspector General Deborah Witzburg emerged last month in direct response to a recent investigation by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that found dozens of current and former Chicago cops were among the Illinois law enforcement officials who once joined the Oath Keepers.

The newly approved policy is intended to spell out in the greatest detail yet which groups police should not join if they want to avoid discipline.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has been working on the new policy for 10 months. The Chicago Police Department will have 60 days to respond to the change, and Mayor Brandon Johnson has the power to veto it.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“Given the seriousness and urgency of this issue, we feel it’s important we vote on this policy today,” Commissioner Remel Terry said. “We will continue our work to ensure that the Chicago Police Department effectively implements this policy, monitors the implementation and provides regular reporting on the outcome.”

The policy expands on a departmental order barring officers from joining “criminal organizations” by prohibiting them from participating in organizations that use force to deny others’ rights, achieve ideological goals or advocate for “systemic illegal prejudice, oppression, or discrimination.”

Perhaps most notably, the policy prohibits membership in groups that “seek to overthrow, destroy, or alter the form of government of the United States by unconstitutional means.”

The banned organizations would be identified by the police department’s counterterrorism bureau, but the list would be kept from the public.

The commission has been working with the police department on the new policy for 10 months. Before Monday’s vote, commission President Anthony Driver noted the department would have 60 days to respond to the change, and Mayor Brandon Johnson has the power to veto the policy. Johnson campaigned this year on the promise of firing officers aligned with far-right groups. terminating any Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the police department.

The “Extremism in the Ranks” series on WBEZ and in the Sun-Times linked 27 current and former Chicago police officers to the anti-government Oath Keepers, including nine officers who remain on active duty. It also showed that a prior police investigation of officers associated with the Oath Keepers did not include all the officers alleged to be involved.

Witzburg has slammed the police department’s investigations into officers linked to the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Three Percenters, pushing the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs to reopen three cases.

And Witzburg has argued existing rules already allowed Johnson to follow through on his campaign promise. She pointed to long-standing, broad rules that prohibit police officers from discrediting the department and undermining its goals.

The police department is conducting its own investigation into officers tied to the Oath Keepers, which Internal Affairs Chief Yolanda Talley recently said would be finished “in less than six months.” Johnson’s handpicked police superintendent, Larry Snelling, also assured City Council members there would be “stringent” efforts to root out extremists and “remove those members from our ranks.”

But previous efforts within the police department have faltered, records show.

An investigation was launched after National Public Radio reported in November 2021 that a group of Chicago police officers was found on a leaked membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a far-right group at the center of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Yet internal investigators didn’t obtain that list, and a stark warning from the Anti-Defamation League was apparently overlooked. As the investigation was playing out, in August 2022, the ADL emailed the police department’s second-ranking official and provided the names of as many as eight Chicago police officers on the leaked rolls.

But the probe — which targeted just three officers — wasn’t expanded, and it was closed without discipline against anybody.

The Internal Affairs bureau has come under heavy criticism for its handling of officer Robert Bakker, who lied to investigators about his close ties to the neofascist Proud Boys, another group involved in the Capitol riot. He ultimately entered into a mediation agreement and was suspended for 120 days, drawing criticism from alderpersons and activists who called for his dismissal.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Tom Schuba covers Chicago police for the Sun-Times.

Oath Keepers 3-part sidebar

Read the full investigation

PART ONE — Who are they?: At least 27 Chicago police officials appeared in leaked rosters for the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group. At least nine are still with the department.

PART TWO — Still on the force: Chicago police have not aggressively investigated cops linked to extremist groups, even as newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to fire them.

PART THREE — Lives changed: Jyran Mitchell was a star football player when he was injured while being detained by a state trooper tied to extremism. Officers across Illinois have joined the Oath Keepers.

Daughter of disgraced ex-Ald. Daniel Solis resigns from Chicago Park District post

2023-11-01T14:45:30.762-05:00

Maya Solis, shown at a community event on Sept. 7, submitted her resignation Wednesday, weeks after WBEZ revealed an internal investigation that accused her of violating the agency’s sexual harassment policy.

Manuel Martinez / WBEZ

The daughter of disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis has resigned from a high-ranking post at the Chicago Park District, weeks after WBEZ revealed an internal investigation that accused her of violating the agency’s sexual harassment policy.

Despite her father’s dramatic political downfall, Maya Solis had continued in her $126,072-a-year post as one of three region directors for the park district.

But a spokeswoman for the park district told WBEZ Maya Solis resigned as south region director effective Wednesday.

Park district officials declined further comment on the resignation, and Maya Solis did not return messages Wednesday.

In September, WBEZ reported on the investigation that found Maya Solis had learned about a sexual harassment allegation in 2018 and did not report it to the human resources department.

The park district’s inspector general recommended earlier this year that administrators take “appropriate disciplinary action” against Solis. And the top human resources official for the agency sent Solis a memo in April citing her “direct violation of the Chicago Park District’s sexual-harassment policy.”

The memo also shows Solis received only “verbal counseling” and an order to take three training sessions about harassment and “workplace conflict.”

Since then, the female employee who says she was sexually harassed filed a complaint against the park district with the city’s Commission on Human Relations. The employee alleges she told Solis about her problem “on numerous occasions” before she went to the inspector general’s office last year, and she complained the park district did not further discipline Solis, according to documents obtained through an open records request.

The park district has urged the Human Relations Commission to dismiss the complaint.

Solis’ father was a top ally of former Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel and one of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in Chicago.

But Danny Solis began cooperating with federal investigators in 2016, when confronted with evidence of his own wrongdoing, according to court documents.

He retired from the City Council in 2019, after the Chicago Sun-Times reported he was secretly recording conversations with two other allegedly corrupt top Illinois politicians: then-Ald. Edward Burke and longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Democrats from Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Solis has been charged with bribery, but under his “deferred prosecution agreement” with federal prosecutors, he can avoid being convicted and going to prison.

In a profile of Danny Solis in the Sun-Times this week, Maya Solis described the difficult conversation the longtime politician had with his family after the public disclosure of embarrassing accusations against him.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.

Illinois sheriff says his chief deputy signed up for Oath Keepers but now renounces the extremist group

2023-10-27T11:33:52.914-05:00

Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall (left) is defending Chief Deputy Sheriff Andrew Schroeder (right), who joined the Oath Keepers in 2010.

Stephenson County sheriff’s website

A sheriff in northwest Illinois says his chief deputy once joined the Oath Keepers, thinking it was just an organization that backed police and the military — but now renounces any ties to the anti-government extremist group.

The name of Andrew Schroeder, the chief deputy sheriff for Stephenson County, popped up on leaked membership data analyzed by WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

An investigation published earlier this week found Schroeder was among dozens of law-enforcement officers across Illinois who had supported the Oath Keepers, according to the leaked data, which stretches from 2009 until 2018.

Schroeder was working for the police department in Freeport, the Stephenson County seat, when he signed up for the Oath Keepers. The group would go on to play a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Schroeder’s current boss, Sheriff Steve Stovall, defended him in a statement Thursday, amid growing bipartisan criticism in the county of 44,000 people, located about 115 miles from downtown Chicago.

“I denounce the Oath Keepers and all they represent, as does Chief Deputy Andrew Schroeder,” Stovall said.

Stovall said he had conducted a “thorough investigation,” and Schroeder told him he signed up after learning of the Oath Keepers in 2010 from a fellow Illinois Army National Guard member.

“This group was reported to Andrew Schroeder to be pro-law enforcement, pro-military, and a way to interact with fellow law enforcement officers and military personnel,” Stovall said. “Andrew Schroeder received a link to join the group and did so.”

But Stovall added, “During his brief membership Andrew Schroeder never attended any meetings and did not knowingly have any contact with any members.”

Stovall said Schroeder cut ties to the group in 2011, has not been part of the Oath Keepers since then and boasted an “exemplary” record of public service, having worked more than 25 years in local law enforcement.

Extremism in the Ranks

The leaked data from the Oath Keepers indicates Schroeder became a member in November 2010 and submitted his home address, phone number, email and a payment of $30 for an annual membership. He also identified himself to the Oath Keepers as an active law enforcement officer since October 1998 — which matches up with his start date at the Freeport police, records show.

He was listed in an Oath Keepers list of “dues paying members” as recently as January 2015, according to the leaked data.

“It’s alarming to know he was an Oath Keeper”

The explanation from the Republican sheriff did not convince civil rights activists, Democrats and one other GOP elected official in Stephenson County.

Karl Bronn, a board member with the NAACP chapter in Freeport, said he knew Schroeder personally and was alarmed to learn of his connection to the Oath Keepers.

“Is he working for our citizenry or are they working to advance their own agenda?” Bronn said.

Schroeder was a Republican county board member and continues to serve as the county GOP’s vice chair for Freeport.

Longtime Republican county board member Bill Hadley said he personally never had any issues with Schroeder while they were on the county board together, but added, “It’s alarming to know that he was an Oath Keeper.”

The leader of the county Republicans, Illinois Sen. Andrew Chesney, also issued a statement defending Schroeder.

“I have conferred with Andrew Schroeder, and he is not a member of the Oath Keepers,” Chesney said. “He disavows them, as do I, in the strongest terms.

“Chief Deputy Schroeder has an impeccable record of service that spans more than 25 years, and any suggestion that he would knowingly become a member of an anti-government militia is untrue and unfounded.”

Stovall, the sheriff, also took umbrage at WBEZ and the Sun-Times reporting that Schroeder had changed his Facebook profile photo to the mugshot of former President Donald Trump from Georgia, where Trump faces pending criminal charges for allegedly plotting to “unlawfully change the outcome” of the 2020 election in that state.

Pulse of the Heartland: Freeport voters fear scary times ahead — but split on whether Trump or Biden is the boogeyman

“Chief Deputy Andrew Schroeder was wrongfully accused of wrongdoing,” Stovall wrote in an email Thursday to WBEZ. “Changing his profile picture to Donald Trump is not an extremist act.”

Ronnie Bush, a Democratic county board member from Freeport, said he asked for a meeting with Stovall to discuss Schroeder’s ties to the Oath Keepers, got the same statement reporters had received, and was not swayed by the sheriff’s protests.

“I don’t think he was that naive not to know what [the Oath Keepers] about,” Bush said of Schroeder.

Jody Coss, the leader of the Stephenson County Democrats, called for an independent investigation and also scoffed at the official explanation from Stovall.

“This group had a pretty strong record even then of being anti-government, racist, being involved in things that were against the laws being handed down by our court system,” Coss said. “All you had to do was Google the name and you could have found out the things that they were involved in.”

Chicago police oversight panel to push new outside investigation into cops with extremist ties

2023-10-25T18:13:09.906-05:00

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump converge at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

A police oversight panel will vote this week to urge the city’s top watchdog to investigate extremism within the Chicago Police Department following a recent series by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, a civilian-led panel with broad oversight powers, will vote Thursday whether to recommend the city’s Office of the Inspector General “investigate recent allegations of officer involvement with extremists or hate-based organizations,” according to the agenda for its monthly meeting.

Tuesday’s announcement came right after Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling assured City Council members there would be “stringent” efforts to root out extremists and “remove those members from our ranks.”

Commissioner Yvette Loizon said the CCPSA’s appeal to Inspector General Deborah Witzburg was influenced by the publication of the “Extremism in the Ranks” series, which linked 27 current and former Chicago cops to the anti-government Oath Keepers, nine of whom remain on active duty. It also showed that a prior police investigation of cops associated with the Oath Keepers did not include all the officers alleged to be involved.

On Tuesday, Witzburg said she welcomes the commission’s input and the possible referral while noting her office has already “been working on this issue from a case-specific perspective for a long time now.”

“We take the issue of extremism in the police department tremendously seriously,” Witzburg said. “We brought these cases to light. We have stayed at it. We will have more to say about this issue from a programmatic perspective looking at how the police department is handling these cases and what we can do differently going forward.

“It’s hard to imagine a more pressing issue than this in police oversight in Chicago right now.”

She previously said Mayor Brandon Johnson can and should keep his promise to fire officers aligned with extremist organizations, pointing to broad rules that prohibit cops from discrediting the department and undermining its goals.

Internal Affairs Chief Yolanda Talley told alderpersons Tuesday officers linked to the Oath Keepers were now being targeted in an investigation she promised to wrap up “in less than six months.” An earlier probe was closed after police department officials determined that joining the group didn’t warrant a rule violation.

That investigation was launched after National Public Radio reported in November 2021 that a group of Chicago cops was found on a leaked membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a far-right group at the center of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Yet internal investigators didn’t obtain that list, and a stark warning from the Anti-Defamation League was apparently overlooked. As the investigation was playing out, the ADL wrote an email to the police department’s second-ranking official and provided the names of as many as eight Chicago police officers on the leaked rolls.

“It is important to note that inclusion on this list means that at some point they signed up for membership,” the ADL wrote to then-First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter back in August 2022. “The fact that a member of law enforcement joined the Oath Keepers is extremely concerning and warrants investigation.”

But the probe targeting three officers wasn’t expanded, and it was closed within months. No one was disciplined.

Pressed about the letter and its contents last week, a police spokesperson said those allegations were under investigation.

Internal Affairs has also come under heavy fire for its handling of Officer Robert Bakker, who lied to investigators about his close ties to the neofascist Proud Boys, another group involved in the Capitol riot. He ultimately entered into a mediation agreement and was suspended for 120 days, drawing criticism from alderpersons and activists who called for his dismissal.

The community commission is now working with the police department to expand an existing policy that bars officers from associating with “criminal organizations,” like street gangs. A draft policy would also bar “active participation” in “biased” groups that use violence to deny others’ rights, achieve ideological goals or advocate for “systemic illegal prejudice, oppression, or discrimination.”

Perhaps most notably, the draft prohibits membership in groups that “seek to overthrow, destroy, or alter the form of government of the United States by unconstitutional means.”

However, Witzburg has insisted there are already rules on the books that prohibit cops from joining extremist groups.

Loizon said the police department is now at a “turning point” in its efforts to restore its frayed relationship with the public, and she credited Snelling’s commitment to get rid of cops with extreme beliefs. He was among the three finalists the commission presented to Mayor Johnson following a first-of-its kind superintendent search that resulted in his selection.

“I want to make sure that the community feels that commitment, and they feel like it was legitimate, and they feel like we are all working toward creating a Chicago Police Department that Chicagoans can be really proud of,” she said of Snelling’s stance. “And so I think that this is the right step in that direction, and I’m hoping that a solid, expedient, neutral investigation could bridge a lot of gaps between communities and police officers.”

Tom Schuba covers police for the Sun-Times. Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.

Oath Keepers 3-part sidebar

Read the full investigation

PART TWO — Still on the force: Chicago police have not aggressively investigated cops linked to extremist groups, even as newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to fire them.

Chicago’s top cop vows efforts to root out officers with extremist ties after investigation by WBEZ, Sun-Times

2023-10-24T17:26:38.834-05:00

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Chicago’s new police superintendent on Tuesday vowed “thorough investigations” after WBEZ and the Sun-Times revealed misconduct records of cops tied to the extremist Oath Keepers.

But neither he nor other police brass explained the department’s lack of action since a membership list was leaked two years ago.

Supt. Larry Snelling told a City Council hearing there would be “stringent” efforts to root out extremists and “remove those members from our ranks.”

“It serves the Chicago Police Department in no way, in no way good, to have members amongst our department who are filled with bias or members of hate groups,” Snelling said. “And we will not tolerate it.”

His comments came days after WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Project began publishing a joint investigation, “Extremism in the Ranks,” which found 27 current and former Chicago police officers whose names appeared in leaked membership records for the Oath Keepers.

Nine remain on active duty, some with troubling disciplinary records.

Yolanda Talley, chief of the Bureau of Internal Affairs, signaled those nine officers are being targeted and promised to close the investigation “in less than six months.”

This isn’t the first time police officials have used tough talk to open an investigation into officers linked to the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that was at the center of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

When National Public Radio reported in November 2021 that a group of Chicago cops was found on the leaked membership roster for the group, the department opened a probe and insisted there was “zero tolerance for hate or extremism within CPD.”

That investigation, involving just three officers, was closed after the department determined that joining the group didn’t warrant a rule violation.

Talley claimed that probe was hampered because investigators “did not have the names of the officers.”

But the department apparently overlooked a letter from the Anti-Defamation League, which provided the names of eight Chicago police officers on the leaked rolls.

Pressed about the letter last week, a department spokesperson said a new investigation had been opened into its allegations. It was unclear how that overlaps with the investigation announced by Snelling and Talley.

Talley said looking into officers’ backgrounds and how they’ve performed on the job will “be part of the investigation” that has been recently opened.

Personnel records show many of the Chicago cops who signed up for the Oath Keepers faced accusations of serious misconduct, including racist comments.

Some of the Chicago cops disclosed their ties to the department and promised to recruit fellow officers for the Oath Keepers, according to the leaked membership records obtained by the OCCRP.

The “Extremism in the Ranks” investigation also found other law enforcement agencies in Illinois shied away from disciplining officers whose names appeared on the Oath Keepers list, including the Illinois State Police and the University of Illinois-Chicago campus force.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, urged a quick response from the Chicago Police Department.

“Given the fact that we really want to focus on changing the whole culture in the police department, this to me is like low-hanging fruit,” Dowell said. “Let’s get them and get them out.”

Ald. Matt O’Shea, whose 19th Ward is home to many officers, also called for a thorough probe into cops with connections to the Oath Keepers.

“There’s no place for that,” he told Talley. “I appreciate your strong position on that, getting to the bottom of it. We need to rebuild trust in communities all across our city. We need to partner with the police.”

Some Black Chicagoans told WBEZ and the Sun-Times they were subjected to racial slurs from officers whose names appeared on the Oath Keepers list. But the officers often avoided any disciplinary action.

One sergeant wrote to a Black community activist in the Englewood area, telling her on official city email that he had no concern for poor people in the inner city. That member of the force, Michael Nowacki, received just a three-day suspension.

A former cop who signed up for the Oath Keepers evaded any misconduct charges, although he faced multiple complaints of racial slurs and accusations that he made bigoted comments at a CPD training facility.

A Black veteran officer who served alongside that cop said the work environment at the gun range was like “a Ku Klux Klan rally.”

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez, 33rd, said “it’s heartbreaking to know that there are people in the force that belong to these organizations.”

“It’s scary, and we need to know that it’s not going to happen,” she said. “How are we prepared to prevent that from happening again? How are we prepared to intervene, to detect when there are officers that are engaging with these kinds of organizations?”

Talley pointed to a draft policy that would explicitly prohibit officers from joining hate and extremist groups.

“We’re looking at the best practices from other departments across the country that we can include in this policy to make sure we prevent and get ahead of any future incidents and allegations of white supremacist organizations in the Chicago Police Department,” Talley said.

Oath Keepers 3-part sidebar

Read the full investigation

PART TWO — Still on the force: Chicago police have not aggressively investigated cops linked to extremist groups, even as newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to fire them.

Some active duty cops around the state joined extremist Oath Keepers

2023-10-24T06:02:51.313-05:00

Jyran Mitchell sits in the family’s Matteson home July 5, 2023, the scene of the incident with ISP back in 2018.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

Jyran Mitchell was a state high school track champion and a highly recruited college football prospect — before he met Illinois State Police Trooper Matthew Dumais.

One evening in 2018, Dumais came looking for Mitchell’s brother at the family’s home on a cul-de-sac in south suburban Matteson. Dumais and another officer apprehended Mitchell instead, forcing him into a squad car before realizing their mistake and letting him go.

In that incident, though, the police injured Mitchell’s right knee badly, and he says he never completely recovered his blazing speed, which at the time threatened his hopes of success as a Division I football player.

Shawn Mitchell, Jr. (left) sits next to his brother Jyran (right) in the family’s Matteson home July 5, 2023.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

The Illinois attorney general’s office eventually agreed to pay $210,000 to settle Mitchell’s legal claim against Dumais and another trooper, according to documents obtained through a public records request.

For years, Mitchell said Dumais’ behavior that night “never added up to me.”

Then, reporters from WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times told Mitchell about the officer’s ties to the Oath Keepers. Leaked membership records for the group show Dumais had signed up to join the violent anti-government group, which later played a big role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“It definitely was the missing piece,” Mitchell said.

Read the full investigation and see more documents, videos and interactive elements at graphics.suntimes.com.

For this series, the Sun-Times, WBEZ and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project have dug into the public disciplinary records of Chicago police officers with ties to the Oath Keepers, including nine who remain on the force. Documents show some of those Chicago cops have drawn accusations of using racial slurs and other serious misconduct on the job but faced little to no consequences.

The investigation also found a dozen other Oath Keepers who are active-duty officers in other law enforcement agencies across Illinois.

Besides Dumais, there are officers who appeared on the Oath Keepers membership rolls and continue to work as cops for the University of Illinois Chicago campus police, a community college in the northwest suburbs and a village on the banks of the Mississippi River known as “America’s First Black Town.”

And like the Chicago Police Department — which has taken a lax approach toward its Oath Keepers, even as new Mayor Brandon Johnson has promised to fire them — other law enforcement agencies in the state also have shown a high tolerance for membership in extremist groups in their ranks.

At UIC, officials launched an investigation into one such officer last year and determined the Oath Keepers is not the kind of group anybody from its department should join. The campus cop admitted signing up for the Oath Keepers.

UIC let him off with no discipline other than a talking-to, according to public documents obtained by WBEZ and the Sun-Times.

But after Mitchell’s confrontation with Dumais, the football player says he believes anyone who joined the Oath Keepers should not be in law enforcement.

“If we’re keeping people like this on the force who do stuff like this, what does that say about the state?” said Mitchell, 23. “We need to police our police officers so this would never happen to anybody again.”

‘That officer has hate in his heart’

Mitchell was at home one evening in February 2018 with his grandmother when two officers — Dumais and a Matteson municipal cop — came to their house looking for his brother, who had fled a traffic stop.

Mitchell told the officers his brother was not home. But police reports show the officers handcuffed Mitchell, and Dumais placed him in an Illinois State Police squad car.

Mitchell, who is Black, said he believes Dumais, who is white, acted with racial bias when the officers did not believe him and his grandmother, who also told the officers that Mitchell’s brother was not there.

“The officer that does that has hate in his heart,” Mitchell said at an interview in his family’s house in Matteson. “He’s angry toward my people. He showed racism that night.”

Mitchell said his meniscus was injured when the officers forced him face down on landscaping rocks in front of the home before dragging him to the state police car. In his report on the incident, Dumais stated that Mitchell was “released from detainment” when officers realized the car in the driveway was not his brother’s vehicle and they had the wrong guy.

Jyran Mitchell looks out the window of his family’s Matteson home July 5, 2023, eyeing the front lawn where the altercation with ISP that left him injured took place back in 2018.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

Represented by veteran Chicago attorney Victor Henderson, Mitchell sued Dumais, another state police trooper, the village of Matteson and a Matteson cop in federal court. Court records show the office of the Illinois attorney general tried to get Mitchell’s complaint against the two state troopers dismissed.

But U.S. District Judge Manish Shah declined to throw out the case. Shah wrote in June 2020 there was no reason for the troopers to use force against the young man, “let alone to team up and wrangle Mitchell to the ground when he presented no threat whatsoever.”

During the court fight, text messages emerged between Dumais and the Matteson officer in the case in which they discussed the complaint from Mitchell.

Dumais wrote of Mitchell’s claim, “His story is bull—- … We didn’t use any force. Lil b—- lol.”

After Mitchell’s lawsuit was filed, the Matteson officer sent Dumais a copy and told him he was named as a defendant. According to documents filed in the case, Dumais replied with a slur, “Gay.”

Weeks after the case was filed in Chicago, Dumais told his counterpart from the suburban police department, “I have only heard s— in the news. Lol state police haven’t said s–.”

Shawn Mitchell Jr. in the family’s Matteson home July 5, 2023, reads a printed copy of the text message thread Illinois State Police Trooper Matthew Dumais had with a law enforcement colleague.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

Like the state police, the village of Matteson ended up paying $210,000 to settle the case, records show.

Mitchell said he was shocked by the treatment from police. He never had any problems with the law, kept a grade-point average of 4.28 and before his injury had committed publicly to playing football at Northern Illinois University.

“Nobody even came to say they’re sorry from the village or the state police,” he said.

In a statement last week, state police said they knew Dumais had appeared on the Oath Keepers list, but officials determined he had only “isolated involvement” with the group in 2009, before he joined the force in 2013. In the leaked data, Dumais appears on membership rolls dated as late as 2015.

“At some point in early 2009 I donated an amount of money which I cannot recall to the Oathkeepers Organization through their website,” Dumais wrote in an internal memo in January 2023. “I do not consider myself a member of this organization.”

Dumais did not return messages. A state police spokesperson defended him as a “decorated officer with no discipline” who was lauded for saving a woman from fatally overdosing and for being the lead investigator in three solved homicide cases.

The spokesperson for the state police said the allegations against Dumais in Mitchell’s lawsuit had been reviewed, and it was decided there was “insufficient evidence to support discipline” against the state trooper. The spokesperson also said the settlement with Mitchell was smaller than his initial demand of $1.5 million.

State police officials said Monday they recently added questions to their job applications to screen aspiring troopers who have been involved in anti-government groups.

For Mitchell, surgery on his knee cost him the chance to defend his state track titles and blighted his hopes of starring on the football field for NIU, he said. He ended up transferring from NIU to Eastern Kentucky University and is now playing for Butler University, where he’s finally enjoying success this fall.

‘Verbal counsel’ for UIC cop with extremism ties

Another police force — for the University of Illinois System — also showed a great deal of tolerance for an officer who acknowledged signing up as an Oath Keeper and paying membership dues, records show.

The UIC campus police opened an internal investigation into the officer, Matthew Paulish, in August 2022, after the Anti-Defamation League informed the department’s chief, Kevin Booker, that Paulish’s name had appeared in the leaked list of 38,000 Oath Keepers members. The message from the ADL also included extensive research about the history of the Oath Keepers.

After the tip from the ADL, an internal affairs investigator for the UIC campus cops questioned Paulish, who initially said he “does not remember signing up as a member of the Oath Keepers.” Asked again, though, Paulish changed his answer and said he could have become a member when he made a $50 donation to the group “just one time” in 2009, according to the investigator’s report in the case.

But the leaked membership records for the Oath Keepers suggest Paulish remained on the list of Oath Keepers loyalists for several years.

In his application to the Oath Keepers, which also was part of the group’s data leak, Paulish said he had been an officer since 2004 and learned of the organization through “a friend from work.”

UIC records and a video recording of his internal affairs interview show Paulish also told the investigator he never had further contact with the Oath Keepers beyond giving them his contact information and was not aware at the time he joined that it was an “extreme right-wing anti-government militia group.”

Paulish did not return messages. But he told the investigator he had joined the Oath Keepers because he wanted Illinois to become a concealed carry state, and he “just thought they were a pro-law enforcement entity.”

The internal investigation at UIC concluded that Paulish’s decision to sign up for the Oath Keepers violated a departmental rule against acting in any way that “would degrade or bring disrespect upon the employee or the Department, including public association with persons of known criminal reputation.”

The investigator in the final case report also criticized Paulish because he “did not fully investigate the philosophy of the group prior to his membership.”

But UIC police did not suspend or fire Paulish because, the investigator said, the Oath Keepers was “not as organized” at the time he signed up as it is now, and the probe determined Paulish did not “intentionally violate” the force’s policy.

According to his UIC personnel file, Paulish received only “verbal counsel.”

Other cops in Illinois with ties to the Oath Keepers

Besides Dumais and Paulish, the investigation by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and OCCRP confirmed 10 other active police officers in Illinois had appeared in the leaked lists of Oath Keepers members. And in some cases, the leaked data shows the officers told the extremist group about their reasons for joining.

Kristopher Larson: A 20-year veteran officer at Harper College in the northwest suburbs. He told the Oath Keepers, according to the leaked membership documents, that he learned about them online and wrote, “I would like to set up something where members in the Chicago area could get together maybe a few times a year.”

Larson did not return messages. According to a spokesperson for Harper College, the campus cop “was affiliated with the [Oath Keepers] from 2011 to 2012. He stated he signed up for a one-year membership and did not renew his membership.”

Kenneth Bombardieri: A longtime police officer in small Illinois communities near St. Louis. He said in leaked membership documents he had also learned about the Oath Keepers through Facebook — after a trucker he stopped told him about the group.

Court records show Bombardieri lost his job after swearing at his police chief in Washington Park, Illinois. But Bombardieri got other police work in the St. Louis suburbs and was hired earlier this year as a part-time cop in Brooklyn, Illinois.

The police chief for Brooklyn declined to comment. Bombardieri did not reply to messages.

John Hopkins: A police officer in DuQuoin, a city about 300 miles south of Chicago, appeared on the leaked membership documents. Hopkins ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for sheriff of Perry County, in southern Illinois, last year. During his campaign, he appeared at events with the GOP nominee for governor, Darren Bailey.

Hopkins was fired from a policing job in one southern Illinois town because the village board president said he stopped showing up for work for nearly a month without explanation, records show.

Hopkins did not reply to messages. A spokesman for Bailey declined to comment.

Andrew Schroeder: Deputy sheriff in Stephenson County, in northwest Illinois. The leaked Oath Keeper membership data and public records show he joined the Oath Keepers while he was on the police force in Freeport, a city west of Rockford.

Schroeder was a member of the county board and continues to be a Republican Party official in a precinct in Freeport. After former President Donald Trump was criminally charged in August in Georgia, Schroeder almost immediately changed his profile photo on Facebook to Trump’s mugshot.

Reached by phone last week at the sheriff’s office, Schroeder declined to comment and hung up on a reporter. The sheriff did not return messages.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Tom Schuba covers police for the Sun-Times. Kevin G. Hall is North America editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

He was a star football player. Then he was detained by a state trooper with extremist ties.

2023-10-24T06:02:02.951-05:00

Jyran Mitchell sits in the family’s Matteson home July 5, 2023, the scene of the incident with ISP back in 2018.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times