A straight Rogers Park man who has claimed off-duty Chicago police officers viciously gay-bashed him outside a Northwest Side bar has filed a $3 million federal lawsuit against the city, three officers and the tavern.
The suit's filing was announced at a press conference last Thursday outside the office of Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine.
The suit claims that early on Nov. 25, officers targeted Jeffrey Lyons, 39, after seeing him embrace a friend outside the Grand Central Station bar, 5726 W. Grand Ave., a popular hangout for police officers from the Grand-Central District station about two blocks away.
Saying, "Get that faggot shit away from my truck," one officer allegedly punched Lyons, and soon other officers joined him, attacking Lyons' face, head, torso, arms and legs.
Lyons suffered broken bones in his face and cuts and bruises, in addition to lasting neurological damage.
One officer also allegedly said to Lyons, "You faggots will never beat us; you'll never win."
Lyons' friend called 911, but before officers could respond, most of the attackers fled the scene. The friend was able to take down the license plate numbers of their cars, however, all of which have been traced to Chicago police officers.
When officers did arrive at the scene, the man who launched the attack on Lyons allegedly went back into the bar and locked the door. A bar employee later came out to clean Lyons' blood from the sidewalk, said Timothy Cavenagh, Lyons' attorney.
Cavenagh said Thursday he intends to use the suit "as a vehicle to get to the bottom of this," alleging that officers have withheld information on the incident and have dragged their feet in punishing those involved. He said he has not been given any incident reports or access to the 911 tapes.
Three officers were initially reassigned to desk duty after allegations of the attack became public, but they were returned to the streets after Lyons and his friend failed to make a positive identification of them during a series of lineups.
Cavenagh criticized the department for the way the lineups were carried out, however, noting that they weren't done until 15 days after the attack. "Why didn't they make an arrest at the scene?" he said. "The coverup began the moment the 911 call was made."
Cavenagh reiterated the lawsuit's claim that Lyons was attacked because officers thought he was gay.
"There's no doubt in our minds what the motive was for the beating," he said.
Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, also took Devine to task for not filing criminal charges against the officers involved.
"There's a double standard of justice at work here," he said. "This is not the first time he ( Devine ) has declined to file charges against police officers who committed a hate crime."
He said CABN plans to keep pressure on Devine's office to solve the case. "If Dick Devine thinks we're going to go away he's sadly mistaken."
In response to a suggestion that Devine's office is waiting for a report from police before acting, Bob Schwartz of CABN said, "Devine has his own investigators that he could send out to find out what happened if he had the will to go after cops who are guilty of hate crimes. We see it as a problem of will."
John Gorman, spokesman for the state's attorney, said, "We do not comment on whether or not we are investigating," adding that charges would be brought when a sufficent amount of information has been collected.
Police have said the investigation into the incident is continuing, but Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard said Thursday, "Why should the city or Police Department be held responsible for something when the police officer is off-duty?"
Lyons' father was a Chicago police officer who was killed during a car accident while on duty eight years ago. Lyons, an employee of the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, was not at Thursday's press conference.
