Cops Fired, Suspended For Having Sex At Station, Demanding Free Coffee
CHICAGO (WBBM/STNG) -- The Chicago police board released records Thursday revealing details about numerous firings and suspensions of officers - including a sergeant who was caught having sex at a police district and another officer who was fired for demanding free Starbucks.
Former Sgt. Nicholas M. Ortega was fired after he was found guilty of entering a bar in uniform, giving a ride to an unauthorized person in his squad car and having sex with a woman in or near the sergeants’ office in the Grand-Central police district on the Northwest Side in 2005.
Coincidentally, the bar he entered was called Grand Central Station in the 5700 block of West Grand, records show.
Officer Barbara Nevers of the Belmont police district was suspended for more than 15 months, according to records the board released.
She has been suspended and ordered into counseling after being found guilty of demanding free Starbucks coffee from five different stores on the North Side from 2001 to 2004, sometimes flashing her badge, displaying her gun and screaming at employees.
Nevers exhibited similar behavior at Starbucks stores -- sometimes demanding free coffee, yelling when they refused her demands and showing her weapon, the board found. On July 12, she took a bottle of juice without paying, the civilian disciplinary panel found.
In other decisions released Thursday by the police board:
-- Officer Kevin Waters was fired after he was found guilty of threatening to slit a man’s throat in a bar in southwest suburban Merrionette Park, using a racial epithet and lying to Chicago Police Internal Affairs investigators.
-- Officer Cardinal Castillo was fired after he was found guilty of striking a woman in the face and leaving profane voice mails on her answering machine in 2004 and 2005.
-- Officer Robert E. Taylor Sr. was fired after he was found guilty of perjury before a judge in 2004. He was accused of being married to two women at the same time.
-- Officer Joseph Battaglia was suspended for more than 15 months after he was found guilty of telling Trotter's to Go restaurant employees in 2004 that he had confiscated “weed”and asked if they wanted some.
Contents of this site are Copyright 2008 by WBBM. The STNGwire contributed to this report.
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