A local gay man claims that two 20th District police officers allegedly beat him after escorting him from a North Side bar March 5.
Alexander Ruppert, 35, has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery against a police officer, but claims he was the victim. Ruppert claims that he was escorted from the Uptown Lounge the evening of March 5. Both Ruppert and his attorneys say they do not have an explanation as to why the officers removed him from the bar.
After being placed in the back seat of the police vehicle, Ruppert claims he used his cell phone to call his partner while the officers were transporting him. He says this angered the officers, who called him words like 'faggot' and dragged him out of the car to beat him. Ruppert's attorneys say that the beating occurred a short distance down the road from the Uptown Lounge.
Ruppert was taken via ambulance to Weiss Memorial Hospital, where he was given 21 stitches under his left eye, according to one of his attorneys, Jon Erickson.
'It looks to me—I'm not a plastic surgeon or anything—like there are going to be some scars,' Erickson said of the severity of his client's injuries. 'He received pretty severe bruises and lacerations all about the head and face, with a particular gash under his left eye.'
After treatment, Ruppert told his attorneys he was jailed at the 20th District station for two days without food or water. He was then transferred to Cook County Jail at 26th and California.
Ruppert was released on $50,000 bond March 15.
Officers at the Chicago Police Department headquarters and the Office of Professional Standards declined to comment on the ongoing investigation or provide any details of the incident.
Erickson calls the charges against Ruppert typical 'cover charges.' He also finds it interesting that there are no underlying charges against Ruppert.
'There are no charges for anything other than the aggravated battery of a police officer and resisting,' Erickson said. 'So, there's no specifications of charges against him for having contact with him in the first place.'
Within the police reports, Erickson said, police acknowledge transporting Ruppert from one location to another before the incident occurred, which is 'not usually done.'
Erickson said the police reports claim that Ruppert was removed from the vehicle in order to conduct an interview, and then Ruppert attacked the officers. The attorney added that in most cases, officers will interview an individual at the scene or through the grating of the police vehicle, not remove the individual from the car in a different location to conduct an interview.
Erickson said it is also against the Chicago Police Department's rules to transport an individual without handcuffs.
Ruppert's attorneys plan to file a civil-rights lawsuit in federal court.