There was only one set of tire tracks on the deserted street in Marengo, and it would soon be covered by the blustery, steady snowfall. Where the tracks stopped sat a car, and in it private investigator Paul Ciolino quizzed 17-year-old Zachary McMackin about his arrest in the town of 8,000 a year ago. A court reporter sat in the passenger’s seat.
Still wearing his pajamas, McMackin described being tackled by officer Scott Crawford and then having two cans of pepper spray emptied into his face.
Then, toward the end of the interview last December, he mentioned a couple of other teenagers who also had stories about Crawford.
“What started as a simple criminal defense case has turned into an unbelievable civil rights case,” Ciolino said at a news conference Tuesday, announcing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Crawford, his partner, officer Kelly Given, former Chief Larry Mason and the city of Marengo.
The 79-page suit filed late Monday seeks about $1.5 million in damages for each of the six named plaintiffs, for a total of $9 million. Some of the named plaintiffs are the parents of minors who allege police abuse. It argues both that the officers violated the plaintiffs’ civil rights through excessive force, battery and false arrest, and that the department should never have hired Crawford.
Crawford has repeatedly declined to comment, and could not be reached Tuesday. His Fraternal Order of Police attorney, Erika Raskopf, has said he will be vindicated on the charges brought against him by the Marengo police administration.
Marengo Chief Les Kottke referred comments to city attorney David McArdle, who said the city is waiting to see the outcome of the police commission hearing before making any comment, and that the federal lawsuit would be handled by the city’s insurance company.
Given did not return a call for comment, and Mason could not be reached.
Other accusations
Ciolino and attorney Kevin E. O’Reilly described the 26-year-old Crawford as a man on a rampage against teenagers in the central McHenry County town, and that his department was negligent and reckless in hiring him in February 2003 and keeping him on the police force. According to documents obtained by the Daily Herald, he resigned from the Waukegan Police Department after being videotaped beating a suspect.
But his days on the Marengo force could be numbered. On Thursday, the city’s police commission will resume hearing the department’s case that he be fired for three violations unrelated to the allegations in the federal lawsuit. He’s been accused of lying on his application, acting improperly and creating a hostile work environment.
He also was accused of wrongdoing in three previous complaints, including two for excessive force, but was later cleared.
Except for the Gaughan brothers, none of the other four plaintiffs filed a formal complaint with the police department or another agency about the alleged conduct.
Kevin and Brian Gaughan are still facing numerous felony charges from the arrest by Crawford and Given that could lead to jail time. They have a court appearance later this month.
Tight-knit town
In a small town like Marengo, news, gossip and rumors have a way of traveling fast. So when Ciolino started asking witnesses what they saw on the night brothers Brian Gaughan, 22, and Kevin, 18, were arrested for charges including felony aggravated battery and resisting arrest, the accusations piled up faster than that December snow.
The Gaughan brothers had been at the Settlers’ Day carnival on the night of October 8, 2004, when Crawford told Brian he had two seconds to leave because he said he saw a fight escalating. As Brian Gaughan walked away, he mouthed off “One, Two,” to the officer.
The Gaughan brothers were both arrested, with Crawford claiming they assaulted him and Given, and the brothers insisting the were victims of excessive force. The Illinois State Police cleared Crawford of any wrongdoing, though the state police are now taking another look at that investigation.
When Brian Gaughan Sr. became wary of the tone of the state police’s investigation, he hired Ciolino to interview more than 20 witnesses. It soon became clear those witnesses had stories of their own, and knew others who did.
“Everybody knows each other,” Ciolino said of the town.
So Ciolino made his way through Marengo, going from one person to the next, one story to the next.
McMackin described in a sworn statement how in November 2003, he and some friends were drinking, spotted Crawford and decided to run. After a foot chase, he slipped and fell, and Crawford jumped on top of him and handcuffed him.
Then, McMackin said he hit him in the face.
“And then he turned me around after I was handcuffed and put a whole can of pepper spray in my face,” McMackin said in a sworn statement.
At the end of the interview, McMackin mentioned another name, Steven Beisner.
“Make sure you go talk to him,” said McMackin, who plans to soon enlist in the U.S. Navy.
When Ciolino went to talk to Beisner, the boy told a similar story. In June 2003, according to the federal lawsuit, Crawford tried to search him for no reason then slammed his head against the wall, beat him and used pepper spray.
McMackin and Beisner, like the rest of the plaintiff’s, have only minor arrests, traffic tickets and local ordinance violations on their records.
‘I couldn’t breathe’
At the press conference Tuesday, the parents of those named in the lawsuit spoke briefly about their personal experiences, at times almost breaking into tears before television cameras and reporters at O’Reilly’s downtown office.
Nichole Surber’s mother described how her 14-year-old daughter had been drinking at a football game and was approached by Crawford. After giving her sobriety tests, Given told her she was under arrest and the girl tried to run. Soon, Crawford and two other officers put her facedown on the ground and all sat on her back. Given’s police dog bit her, Surber said in a sworn statement, and then she was handcuffed.
“The whole time I was screaming, because I couldn’t breathe and none of them would get up,” Surber said in a sworn statement.
As they went to put her in the car, her mother Melissa Kelley said at the press conference, they kept her shirt lifted up so that all the bystanders could see her nearly half-naked.
Then, they put her facedown in her car, Surber said in a sworn statement, and after she kicked at the window Crawford grabbed her ankles and yanked her out of the car, smacking her face on the side of the car and the ground.
As for his clients, Ciolino said he wants them to be able to move past their arrests and their treatment at the hands of a “rouge cop.” Some, he said, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in order to avoid the hassle and high-cost of the court system.
“There’s not a bag egg amongst them,” he said. “We want to get guilty pleas vacated and get these kids’ lives back.”
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