By Andrew Schroedter ation
The Better Government
Association and CBS2 reported last month that an antique handgun seized by
Dolton police was never inventoried and went missing for more than two years.
Now, the police sergeant at the
center of that controversy has been fired for "neglect of duty,"
"failure to secure evidentiary material" and 10 other administrative
charges, according to interviews and public records.
Anthony Bankhead, a 15-year
Dolton police veteran, was terminated this week.
"Based on the findings the
village had no other choice," Dolton Police Chief John Franklin says.
The Cook County sheriff's
office questioned Bankhead but didn't pursue criminal charges because the gun
was recovered and eventually returned to its owner. The village initiated
termination proceedings amid questions from the BGA and CBS2.
Village Attorney John Murphey
says Bankhead is appealing his firing with an independent arbitrator, who will
either uphold the decision or mete out a different punishment. The ruling will
be binding.
Bankhead, a former Chicago Housing
Authority police officer, was paid $108,655 last year by taxpayers. He declined
to comment when contacted by the BGA. Officials with the Illinois Fraternal
Order of Police, the union that represents Dolton's officers, couldn't be
reached for comment.
Bankhead likely would not
qualify for a police pension if he loses his appeal, Murphey says.
The .32-caliber pistol, a
12-gauge shotgun, ammunition and two "blunts," or cigars stuffed with
marijuana, were recovered during an Illinois Department of Corrections
"compliance check" at a Dolton home where a parolee was staying in
December 2011.
Pierce Cole, 59, legally owns
the weapons and the home and had been letting his friend Farren Caridine, 48,
stay there since Caridine's release from state prison in June of that year.
Because the shotgun was found
in an area of the home's basement where Caridine slept he was charged with
felony unlawful use of a weapon, a parole violation, and sent back to prison.
Dolton police processed his arrest and took possession of the unloaded guns,
ammunition and drugs.
More than a year later a Cook
County judge dismissed the weapons charge and ordered Dolton police to return
the weapons and shotgun ammunition to Cole, according to interviews and public
records.
But when Cole went to the
Dolton police station to pick up the items, he discovered Bankhead had
inventoried his shotgun and ammunition – but not the blunts or the early 1900s
pistol, which resembles a valuable German Luger but, according to gun experts,
is actually an American-made knock-off, worth a few hundred dollars.
Initially, Bankhead told Dolton
police officials he didn't know what happened to the gun.
But Bankhead later changed his
story and said he had placed the pistol in a cabinet drawer in the police
station, a violation of department policy. The gun was eventually returned to
Cole.
The drugs were never found.
