Crime Lab Jury Finds Chicago Police Officer Shot Friend in the Head, Orders City to Pay $44.7 Million for Leaving Officer on the Street

Washington Post / November 15, 2017
By Tom Jackman

Most large police departments have “early intervention” systems designed to detect troubled young officers; they either retrain them or release them. Chicago has one, but the 19 citizen complaints Officer Patrick Kelly racked up in his first six years on the streets did not result in any action against him.

Then came the morning of Jan. 12, 2010, when the off-duty Kelly dialed 911 from his home to report his longtime friend Mike LaPorta had just committed suicide. Except LaPorta, with a gunshot through his brain, lived. He spent months in a coma and now uses a wheelchair, unable to read and speaking only with difficulty. Kelly was arrested at the scene for drunkenly assaulting one of the responding officers, though that case was later dismissed, according to court records. LaPorta and his family would later contend it was Kelly who fired the gun.

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15 November 2017