Two Evanston police officers were indicted Tuesday by a Cook County grand jury after a videotape showed evidence of them allegedly beating a Chicago man in a police station bathroom.
Officers Gus Horemis and Michael Yorty are being charged with felonies in connection with the March 10 arrest of 22-year-old Sayyid Qadri.
Horemis, an EPD officer for 12 years, is charged with felonies of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and misdemeanor battery.
Yorty, a probationary officer, is charged with official misconduct, obstruction of justice and perjury, which are all felonies.
In a federal lawsuit filed Sept. 2, Qadri said he was abused in a bathroom stall at the police station after a traffic stop and that a security camera caught some of the violence.
The publicly released camera footage, obtained by The Daily on Tuesday, shows Qadri emerging from a bathroom stall with blood on his shirt and face and being slammed against a bench and choked.
The lawsuit also alleged that the officers created a story to explain Qadri’s injuries and filed false charges against him, saying he resisted arrest, damaged a pipe in the bathroom and assaulted police officers.
Qadri was pulled over by Horemis on March 10 for making an illegal turn at a red light on Ridge Avenue at about 11 p.m. When Horemis discovered Qadri’s license was expired, he arrested Qadri and took him to the police station.
At a news conference Tuesday, EPD Chief Frank Kaminski apologized on behalf of the department.
“I deeply regret that two officers have disgraced their oath of office and their badge,” he said. “They have betrayed the public trust and dishonored their fellow officers. A law enforcement officer who breaks the law shakes the public’s confidence in other police professionals the community turns to in moments of vulnerability and need.”
Kaminski said the department began investigating the incident immediately after it happened and that an investigation continued for six months in cooperation with the Cook County State’s Attorney.
“We uncovered it and brought it forward,” he said. “It was hard, but it was the right thing to do.”
Both Horemis and Yorty pled not guilty Tuesday and were released on $100,000 personal recognizance bonds.
Qadri’s lawyer, Jon Loevy, praised the State’s Attorney’s Office for “doing the right thing” but said prosecutors aren’t always swift in indicting police officers.
“It’s unusual for a police officer to be indicted in Illinois, even if they break the law,” he said. “This is a step in the right direction.”
Loevy said that in this case, the video evidence and media attention to the lawsuit led to the indictment.
Northwestern political science Prof. Wesley Skogan, who studies crime and policing, said beatings in stations are usually less common than those on streets.
“In general, it’s a combination of things, principally sparked or motivated at the moment by policemen feeling they’ve been disrespected or their authority hasn’t been recognized,” Skogan said, while adding that he could not specifically comment on the Qadri case.
Reach Alison Knezevich at [email protected].
The Daily’s Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
