Professional courtesy for Chicago fire official brings suspensions for 6 cops
Watch coverage of this story from April, 2016
Six Chicago police officers have been suspended for giving the third-highest ranking member of the Chicago Fire Department favored treatment after the fire deputy crashed his city-owned SUV near Lake Shore Drive in Lincoln Park, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson suspended all six officers for “improper processing and reporting procedures” in connection with the April 20, 2016 crash involving former Deputy Fire Commissioner John McNicholas.
McNicholas had a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit nearly four hours after the crash.
Sources said the disciplinary action is not final because all six officers, three of them supervisors, have filed grievances challenging their suspensions.
Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune:
The crash took place a little before 1 a.m. on April 20 on LaSalle Street just west of Lake Shore Drive while McNicholas was off-duty. McNicholas had a blood-alcohol content of 0.154 percent — nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to city records obtained by the Tribune under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
But internal investigators with the Fire Department didn’t conduct the Breathalyzer test until 4:32 a.m., more than three hours after the crash, the records show.
Initially, police only issued a traffic ticket to McNicholas for failing to reduce speed. But in June, he was ticketed for driving under the influence of alcohol after the Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to charge McNicholas with a felony.
McNicholas resigned from the Fire Department after the incident.
