Suit: Chicago Police Abused Three Suspects At 'Off The Books' Detention Facility
(CBS) -- Three people claim in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that they were abused by Chicago Police officers at the department's Homan Square facility on the West Side, and then illegally jailed for more than a year.
Atheris Mann, Jessie Patrick and Deanda Wilson were "physically and psychologically abused" for about a day at the site near the intersection of Homan and Fillmore, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
"They strip-searched them," attorney Flint Taylor told CBS 2. "They took them to dark rooms and handcuffed them to the walls. They did not permit them to go to the bathroom or eat or drink."
Mann, Patrick and Wilson were arrested without probable cause the morning of Oct. 21, 2013, in connection with a drug investigation and taken to Homan Square, the suit claims.
Detectives used insult, threats and racial slurs while interrogating the three—who are black—for hours on end about the location of illegal guns and neighborhood drug sales, which the plaintiffs didn't know anything about, the suit alleges.
Suit: CPD Unlawfully Detains Suspects At Homan Square
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy didn't comment specifically on the lawsuit, but says he's reviewing what goes on at Homan Square.
The 11-count suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
The suit makes similar allegations to a suit filed by three other men in late March, after a series of reports by the British newspaper The Guardian drew international attention to the Homan Square facility for its purported function as a secretive site for police to "disappear" people. Police officials have denied the reports.
"The case is not only about what happened to them, but it is also about a pattern and practice by the Chicago Police Department," Taylor said.
Last winter, CBS 2 spoke to another suspect who was detained at Homan Square. Brian Jacob Church, who was arrested during the NATO Summit in Chicago in May 2012, said he was handcuffed to a bench in a cinder block cell for 17 hours. He was also denied access to an attorney.
