Suit: Waukegan Police Roughed Up Teen Boy During Interrogation
(CBS) – A 13-year-old boy says he was brutalized by Waukegan police late last month, and now two unnamed detectives and the city are facing a federal lawsuit.
CBS 2's Mike Parker reports.
On Monday, eighth-grade honor student and athlete Jonathan Garcia, his family and their attorney took their complaint to the Waukegan City Council.
"We are on a pattern on abuse in the city of Waukegan, which has now led to our children," the lawyer, Kevin O'Connor, said.
A federal lawsuit filed this week alleges that during a police investigation of a broken window, Garcia and another teen were taken to an interrogation room and held for three to four hours.
Garcia says he was roughed up because he wouldn't confess.
"He got mad because I said, 'I'm not going to sign nothing without an attorney or my mother, and then he hit me with his phone. He choked me," the teen said.
The police detective also banged his head against the wall, Garcia claims.
His lawyer says the blow to the teen's nose caused it to break.
"If the police is doing this, who do I call if I'm in danger?" Garcia said.
The city and the police department declined comment on the suit, saying they haven't seen it.
