Chicago Police Board rules officer not guilty of alleged misconduct during 2020 unrest
CHICAGO (CBS) – Nearly a year after Chicago's former police superintendent called for a troubled officer's firing, the city's police board has ruled Officer James Hunt was not guilty of charges against him and should go back to work.
CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey had the latest on the saga.
Hunt's name might be familiar from a different case. CBS 2 has reported on the troubled officer before.
In 2018, Hunt was caught on camera bragging about killing someone while taunting a man in a park. That case led to a $100,000 settlement from the city.
But since then, the more recent case looked like it might be the end of Hunt's career with the department until the police board's ruling.
Cell phone video from a May 2020 incident at the center of the case. It involved an arrest Hunt made during the civil unrest in downtown Chicago in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd.
The charges allege Lakeya Woods was arrested without probable cause after Hunt broke her window, allegedly struck her in the legs, and called her a derogatory name.
Former CPD Supt. David Brown filed charges against Hunt with the police board in December, but in a decision issued Thursday night, the board found him not guilty. It said some of his actions were "justifiable," and there was not enough evidence for some of the other allegations against him.
University of Chicago professor Sharon Fairley said it sounded like the evidence in the case was not quite strong enough. She noted there is often a delay between when charges are filed and when the hearings before the police board actually happen.
"What happens when time elapsed, memories fade, right?" said Fairley. "And so I don't know if that happened in this particular case, but that's one of the shortcomings of the process as it exists right now, is that there is often a really inappropriately long delay between when the decision is made that the officer did something wrong by [the Civilian Office of Police Accountability] or Bureau of Internal Affairs, and the superintendent agrees, and then, when the charges are actually brought."
Fairley was also the chief administrator when COPA was created in 2017.
Two police board members wrote a dissent, arguing Hunt's use of his baton to break the woman's car window was a "rash, disrespectful, unjustified action" and that they recommend a suspension without pay.
Ultimately, the board ruled that Hunt be restored to his position as a police officer.
CPD said as of Friday, Hunt was still on no-pay status.
COPA also recommended a 365-day suspension for the 2018 incident, but Hunt was fighting that recommendation through arbitration. The arbitrator reduced his suspension to a period of 45 days.
Fairley questioned whether the right policies are in place to curb this type of behavior from officers.
"Is there a mechanism that's missing that can identify officers like this to try to prevent these kinds of things from happening in the future?" Fairley said.
