A lawsuit filed this week accuses police officer Scott Crawford of beating six young people in Marengo, and Thursday night dozens who know them showed up at Marengo’s city hall to hear for themselves unrelated allegations that could cost Crawford his job.
If attorneys for the police department have their way, they won’t hear anything of the sort.
Police department attorney Mark Gummerson made a last-minute motion to keep the police and fire commission proceedings secret and to disqualify the commission’s attorney from overseeing them.
The move came minutes after an attorney for Crawford, 26, and the department failed to reach an agreement that would have avoided a public airing of the department’s case against him.
He stands accused of acting improperly in a chase, fostering a hostile work environment and lying on his job application. Crawford has been suspended since June and on leave since April.
This week, the city, its former Police Chief Larry Mason, Crawford and his partner police officer Kelly Given were all named in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging that Crawford brutalized six young people, including brothers Brian Gaughan, 22, and Kevin, 18, in October 2004.
“I’m completely innocent of the allegations brought against me, and it will be shown in time,” Crawford said Thursday night.
But when — or if — that time will come remains to be seen. The hearing was officially postponed until 6 p.m. Aug. 30 so Crawford’s attorney, Erika Raskopf, can respond to the motions filed by the department.
The legal tangle the city and the commission are caught in was complicated this week with the filing of the lawsuit, which alleged federal civil rights violations and the reckless hiring and retention of Crawford.
Crawford resigned from the Waukegan Police Department in 2002 after being videotaped beating a suspect, according to materials obtained by the Daily Herald.
But while the Marengo department alleges Crawford lied on his application about being forced to resign, commission attorney John Broihier recently ruled that personnel documents produced by the commission when it hired Crawford could not be turned over to the department. That ruling is why Gummerson is asking to have him removed as head of the commission, he said.
As to why he wants what is now a public case to be kept private, Gummerson said he doesn’t want to prejudice any criminal investigations where Crawford may be called as a witness.
McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Nichole Owens, who is prosecuting the Gaughan brothers on charges they assaulted Crawford, said she wasn’t aware of that request and hadn’t asked Gummerson to make it.
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