Stefano Esposito AND RUMMANA
HUSSAIN
A former Chicago cop caught up
in a “hare-brained” scheme to plant drugs and a gun in a suburban woman’s car —
a scheme that led to a $375,000 city payout — may soon get his job back.
Slawomir Plewa could be back on
the streets, even though the Chicago Police Department is fighting the fired
cop’s efforts in court.
Plewa’s actions “represent a
serious breach of the public’s trust,” says Marty Dolan, the lawyer who sued
Plewa in federal court on behalf of the suburban woman. “He violated a sworn
oath to protect the public and certainly does not deserve a second chance to
serve in any capacity whatsoever.”
But Cook County Circuit Court
Judge Diane J. Larsen disagreed, ruling in April that the Chicago Police Board
went too far when it voted 8-1 to fire Plewa last year. Attorneys for Chicago
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy are due back in court later this month, preparing
to argue that Larsen got it wrong — that she “usurped” the police board’s
authority when she said Plewa deserved a more “lenient” punishment.
“The last couple of years have
been a nightmare for me and my family,” Plewa, 35, told the Chicago Sun-Times
this week. ““It’s been real tough on us. I’m looking forward to going back to
work.”
Plewa was a “highly decorated”
tactical officer based on the North Side, when he crossed paths with a
desperate Crystal Lake man in the middle of a nasty divorce. Plewa didn’t know
that the man, Bogdan Mazur, had an ulterior motive when he called Plewa
anonymously in spring 2007, to offer
information about a woman with illegal drugs and a gun in her car, according to
Plewa’s lawyer, Dan Herbert.
“He had no idea who this Mazur
was and what his relationship was with this woman,” Herbert said. “He simply
alerted his team to the tip and they acted on it, just as they had hundreds of
times in the past.”
Plewa didn’t know, Herbert
insists, that Mazur was trying to frame his estranged wife.
The tip came in on April 1,
2007, with Mazur telling Plewa where he
could find the illegal drugs, the gun and Mazur’s then-wife, Sylwia Marcinczyk.
The woman was arrested and spent about two weeks in jail, but was later
acquitted of all charges.
Prosecutors took another look
at the case, charging Mazur with four felonies, including delivering
drugs. Prosecutors also charged Plewa,
alleging he’d been part of the plan to frame Marcinczyk — although they never
charged him with trying to profit from the scheme. Mazur pleaded guilty to
filing a false police report and agreed to testify against Plewa. Even so, in
August 2010, Cook County Judge Michael
Brown found Plewa not guilty of all charges, saying the officer was merely
guilty of being a “dupe.”
“There was no evidence that you
were involved in the planning of this hare-brained scheme,” Brown said from the
bench. “There was no benefit that you got.”
But Brown blasted Plewa for
allegedly lying during Marcinczyk’s trial that he’d never met Mazur before
arresting his wife. Brown said it was clear from the evidence that Mazur had
met the officer.
“You did a very horrible thing,
Officer Plewa,” Brown said. “You lied in court. That’s not the kind of thing that we can countenance.”
Plewa says Brown’s decision
vindicates him, and he denied this week having any part in Mazur’s scheme.
“It’s obviously not true,” he
said.
Despite the not-guilty finding,
in June 2012, the city agreed to pay $375,000 to Marcinczyk to settle the
lawsuit she filed against Plewa and the city, alleging false arrest and
malicious prosecution — among other things.
In settling the case, one of the city’s lawyers noted the cellphone
records showing “numerous calls between Mazur and Plewa” prior to Marcinczyk’s
arrest.
“Plewa also allegedly did
nothing to identify his informant or verify his information,” the lawyer,
Leslie Darling, said at the time.
And it wasn’t the first time
the city has paid out in a case involving Plewa. A 26-year-old man accused
Plewa and other officers of falsely claiming to have found drugs in his home in
2008. The city paid a $100,000 settlement in that case, said John Holden, a
city spokesman. The city settled for $50,000 in another case, in which a man
claimed he, too, had been wrongly accused of having drugs when Plewa and
another officer arrested him in May 2008, Holden said.
In July 2013, the police board
voted to fire Plewa based, in part , on his alleged lie in court in the
Marcinczyk case.
“No police officer, even one as
highly decorated as Plewa, can be allowed to remain on the job when he gives
false testimony under oath in court,” the board wrote, explaining the decision.
Plewa appealed, and earlier
this year, Larsen ruled the police board decided to fire Plewa without
considering any significant evidence — including not looking at the transcripts
from Plewa’s criminal trial.
Lawyers for Supt. Garry
McCarthy head back to court on July 31 to ask Larsen to reconsider her ruling.
Plewa said he has “no idea” why
his former employer doesn’t want him back on the force.
“I did the best job I could,”
he said. “My record of arrests and commendations should speak for itself.”
