cbs2chicago.com - Cop Who Handcuffed Mother Could Now Be In Trouble
CHICAGO (CBS) ― The part-time officer involved in a controversial arrest in the south suburbs may now be in trouble himself. He put a mother in handcuffs for leaving a sleeping child in the car but, as CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, there's word that the officer in question should not have been on the street in the first place.
Ellen "Treffly" Coyne was arrested Dec. 8 for leaving 2-year-old Phoebe asleep in her car seat while she and her other daughters went to drop $8 in change into a Salvation Army kettle less than 40 feet away. It was a good deed that ended with Coyne's arrest.
"It was surreal," Coyne said. "I couldn't believe it was happening to me."
The criminal charges were later dropped, but now we're learning that the arresting officer could be in trouble.
Forrest Wondolowski is a Chicago machinist who's been disabled since 2004. But Chicago officials say when he filled out his dual employment form he told them he'd be on desk duty while working as a Crestwood police officer. They wouldn't go on camera Tuesday but spokesperson Eileen Joyce told CBS 2: "We've never had an employee put false information on a dual employment form. We're investigating whether what he wrote on his form was not true."
"He didn't seem disabled to me, so to learn that he was collecting from the City of Chicago for disability, that was surprising," Coyne said.
She calls the turn of events ironic.
Wondolowski and the Crestwood Police Department were not available for comment.
The Mayor of Crestwood says Officer Wondolowski has been a part-time officer in good standing for 10 years.
He says Wondolowski did take time off when he was injured.
City of Chicago officials say Wondolowski can't lift anything above 50 pounds while on the job due to his 2004 shoulder injury.
2 comments:
Treffly Coyne is a fine mother who happened to be out on an excursion planned by her children to donate to charity. A lesson we would all do better to be taught by her kids. Unfortunately the government, very concerned about the welfare of her child stepped in. Somehow the officer saw that a sleeping two year old in a warm and safe locked car with the alarm activated would be better off without the mother who cares for her.
The police would not listen to her story, they refused to listen to witnesses, they did not investigate by going into the store to look at the security video.
Instead, they arrested Treffly Coyne, took custody of her two year old child, broke up her family, and most disturbing, the police abandoned three little girls at the Walmart… left them to their own luck, crying on the curb.
All because the government decided Treffly Coynes family needed its “protection.”
Her children were never in any danger until the representatives of the government showed up.
The police chief of Crestwood, Timothy Sulikowski, knew that there was no evidence that Ms. Coyne had done anything wrong, yet he still decided she needed to be charged and prosecuted.
TO COVER UP THE HORRIBLE MISTAKES AND MISCONDUCT OF THE CRESTWOOD POLICE.
For 97 days she was labled a child abuser by the state, investigated by the DCFS or CPS, paid expensive legal bills and suffered the public humiliation brought on by the unsubstantiated charges of the Crestwood Police.
Even when the prosecutor dropped the charges for lack of evidence, the police chief and Mayor Robert Stranczek continued to make public statements against Treffly Coyne.
Treffly Coyne is now suing the Village of Crestwood, police officers James Ciukaj, Forrest Wondolowski and Angel Brudnicki in federal court.
She would have preferred to have won in criminal court.
All she asked for was an apology and that the charges would be dropped. Thousands of dollars later, and hundreds of thousands of posts on the internet, the Crestwood Police cannot even give her that.
A terrible mistake was made that night at the Walmart and the Crestwood Police and Mayor Stranczek refuse to acknowlege it. Until they do, all citizens, all families in Crestwood are in danger of these kinds of police abuse.
Her fight is not over. The federal Judge will hear the case and has the power to direct the Crestwood Police to make changes in their policies and procedures.
Hopefully she will prevail in her fight, which is a fight for all of our civil rights and her case will create stronger boundaries between the family and the police.
It was wrong to arrest that mother and subject her children to witness in terror the actions of the police.
What is more wrong is that the woman has to fight such wrongdoing in federal court.
A victory for Treffly Coyne will be a victory for all American Families. The civil rights she is fighting for our your civil rights as well.
True dat.
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