Case studies
I would like to clarify one question attributed to me in Windy City Times coverage of the town-hall meeting that was scheduled to feature Superintendent Jody P. Weis.
At the public meeting featuring Chicago Police Department ( CPD ) officials May 26, I asked CPD Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne if he would agree to facilitate a gay homicide investigation in-service training course for CPD and suburban investigators. I did not ask for the creation of a "gay homicide division."
Local law enforcement in general, and the CPD in particular, need to better recognize and acknowledge gay homicide occurrences and investigations. Because several unsolved gay homicides have been compromised by inadequate investigations, a legitimate concern exists as to how CPD responds to these cases beginning with recognizing these crimes for what they are. Being gay isn't the crime in these violent criminal offenses.
After the 2005 arrest of the person believed to be the "Fernando" suspect implicated in the Kevin Clewer homicide investigation, two homicide detectives were removed from the case as their investigative initiative was not uniformly welcomed by other police personnel. This was evident by unauthorized police statements to media dismissing the "Fernando" arrest while the subject was still in custody and being questioned.
Meanwhile, the designated lead detective in the Clewer case was occupied with defending himself in 17 court cases between 2002 and 2007, according to online records of the clerk of the circuit court of Cook County. This detective was also the focus of an NBC-5 Chicago "Target Five" news investigation. Several people who tried to bring information to the lead detective were treated so poorly that they vowed to avoid future contact with him.
The same two detectives who were removed from the Clewer case were subsequently punitively transferred from homicide after they developed information that another homicide victim, Richard Markley, was known to have frequented the "Bear 411" website under the user name "OperaBear." Markley was a noted tenor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago at the time of his murder. The detectives also developed information from other sources that corroborated Markley as gay.
This investigative development in the Markley case contradicted a determination made by a homicide lieutenant who ordered that Markley would not be viewed as being gay. If Markley was gay, the lieutenant reasoned, it would support the premise that a serial killer was preying upon gay men and that multiple unsolved murders shared commonalities—a conclusion the CPD was not about to consider. Instead, police theorized that a female prostitute killed Markley, a conclusion not borne out by the investigation. The finding by this now-retired lieutenant was later dismissed as being "old-school" by a police official.
The punitive transfer of homicide detectives for developing investigative leads in gay homicides sent an unmistakable negative message to other detectives: Thoroughly investigating gay murders earned a transfer. Insofar as similar crimes occur throughout the city and because unsolved gay murder cases have been compromised by inadequate investigations, the need for better in-service training—and for the FBI to review these cases—is urgently required.
Bob Zuley
Chicago
Supporting immigration reform
As members of PFLAG ( Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays ) we have witnessed and shared in the anguish suffered by these individuals as they have experienced oppression, discrimination and the denial of their civil rights over the years. We have fought alongside them to alleviate the inequities to which they have been subjected and, though much remains to be done, we have seen many advances in LGBT rights as the result of an increasingly enlightened American citizenry with respect to the acceptance of human diversity.
One of the chief remaining obstacles to full civil rights for our LGBT friends and loved ones is the absence, under current U.S. immigration law, of the means by which a member of the American LBGT minority can serve as a sponsor for a partner of another nationality who is seeking U.S. citizenship. Happily, a remedy for this remaining inequity is at hand in legislation sponsored by Sens. Reid, Schumer, Menendez, Durbin and Feinstein as part of a proposed comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration law. Owing to the efforts of these senators, the proposed legislation contains, for the first time, language that would afford LGBT Americans their full rights as citizens to sponsor a foreign national family member for U.S. citizenship. We applaud these courageous legislators and support them in their continuing efforts to achieve civil equality for all Americans.
We hope President Obama retains the level of enthusiasm for immigration reform that he expressed during his campaign for office.
Carl Peraino,
PFLAG parent
Downers Grove
