By Madeline Buckley
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A Cook County corrections officer was acquitted Friday of charges stemming from an alleged jail beating amid allegations that an assistant state’s attorney hid evidence in the case, according to court records.
Reginald Roberson, 53, was found not guilty by Judge William Gamboney of aggravated battery and official misconduct in the wake of accusations of prosecutorial misconduct made by Roberson’s attorney. The defense alleged a deal with a witness against Roberson was not disclosed.
The acquittal marks another setback for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s law enforcement accountability unit days before she steps down after eight turbulent years in office. The Law Enforcement Accountability Division, known as LEAD, investigates officers accused of wrongdoing, but the unit has struggled to win cases.
“I’m not exactly a person who’s out there with a big banner saying, I love the police. I’m a defense lawyer. I respect the police and their job, but I want there to be accountability for police,” said Roberson’s attorney Tracey Harkins speaking of the overall prosecution, “and this was the most egregious display of power by the state’s attorney’s office that I have really seen in awhile.”
The state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Dec. 29, 2021, Roberson allegedly placed handcuffs over his knuckles and hit a 29-year-old individual in custody multiple times in the jail’s receiving area, according to a 2023 statement from the sheriff’s office, which moved to fire Roberson. The detainee was treated for minor injuries.
The alleged beating was spotted by staffers who were reviewing footage on jail cameras, the sheriff’s office said.
Harkins, though, had argued that the detainee put his hands on Roberson first, and that he used reasonable force to subdue the detainee.
In June, the case went to trial before Gamboney and was up for a ruling, when Harkins received an email Aug. 5 from an assistant state’s attorney that disclosed a promise made to the detainee who was the complaining witness against Roberson, according to a motion for a mistrial Harkins filed.
According to the disclosure, former Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffani Mims had made a promise to the detainee that if Roberson were convicted, the state’s attorney’s office would get a designation removed from his file that would allow him better housing options in the jail.
By law, prosecutors must disclose to the defense any deals made with witnesses that could be seen to influence or motivate their testimony. By only disclosing it after the trial concluded, the office violated Roberson’s rights, Harkins argued.
Harkins filed a motion asking the judge to declare a mistrial with prejudice, which would bar the state from retrying him.
According to the motion for a mistrial, Mims emailed her colleagues to let them know of the promise she made with the detainee so they could follow through with the agreement because she was unexpectedly removed from the case.
“I got on the horn (with the prosecutors) and used the exact words, ‘I don’t think I need to tell you this is not, not a big deal,” Harkins said.
The motion said Mims’ employment with the office “ended shortly after the events after August 5, 2024.” The motion included a screenshot from a social media account from Mims posted on Aug. 31 that called her departure from the office “unexpected.”
Gamboney denied the motion for a mistrial, but allowed evidence to be reopened in the trial. He then found Roberson not guilty.
Throughout Foxx’s tenure, a number of law enforcement officers have been charged in connection to alleged wrongdoing in their official capacity, but the cases have generally not resulted in guilty verdicts. She has in the past spoken about the difficulties of trying such cases, saying the office has not brought charges “lightly” but said they “do not have to excuse behavior that runs afoul of the law.”
In September 2023, a judge found two police officers not guilty in the shooting of an unarmed man in Pilsen in July 2022 .
Earlier in 2023, a Chicago police sergeant was acquitted by a judge after he was accused of pinning down a 14-year-old in Park Ridge .
In 2022, Chicago police Officer Melvina Bogard was acquitted by a judge after prosecutors charged her with aggravated battery and official misconduct in connection with a shooting at the Grand Red Line stop in 2020.
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