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Southtown Star - Chicago,IL,US
26 December 2007

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Oak Lawn Police Department, IL

Cop accused of extorting Hispa

A rookie Oak Lawn police officer accused of shaking down Hispanic immigrant workers pleaded not guilty Wednesday to more than 20 counts of official misconduct and other charges he faces, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's office.

Officer Steven Harrison is charged with a total of 23 counts of official misconduct, three counts of felony intimidation and five counts of misdemeanor theft in five cases, State's Attorney office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said. Harrison, who was initially charged in November, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges filed in all five cases during an arraignment hearing before Cook County Judge Rosemary Grant Higgins.--

Harrison is accused of extorting at least five victims of up to $250 each between Sept. 18 and 27, telling one of them, "This is how we do things in the suburbs."

Working the midnight shift, Harrison allegedly targeted immigrants as they arrived to start work before dawn at an Alsip business park in the 11500 block of Central Avenue, just over the Oak Lawn border, Assistant State's Attorney Dave Condron said.

In each case, Harrison made traffic stops and threatened his victims, many of whom spoke little English, that they could go to jail if they did not hand over cash, Condron said.

On one occasion, Harrison spent more than an hour negotiating with his victim, sending him home for money before accepting a payoff in the Oak Lawn police station parking lot, Condron said. He said each of the victims later identified Harrison in police lineups.

But Harrison's decision to hand each of his alleged victims a "receipt" on an Oak Lawn parking ticket may be more damaging - while five cases have been charged so far, a search of Harrison's locker revealed a book of sequentially numbered parking tickets with more tickets missing, Condron said.

Police Chief Bill Villanova said "we have found eight of the victims so far," but 14 tickets are missing from the book, suggesting there are more victims.

Villanova termed Harrison's alleged scheme an aberration and said he immediately removed Harrison from patrol duty after the first complaint was made Sept. 27. Harrison, who had been on the force for a little more than a year and still was on probation, was dismissed Oct. 19.

Several minor cases, mainly traffic complaints, in which Harrison was the charging officer, will have to be dropped, the chief said.

Police were alerted about Harrison's misconduct by Richard Ehrie, owner of Advertising Resources Inc., who employs several of the alleged victims. "When I heard about what was going on, I was outraged," Ehrie said. "These are hardworking people who are doing their best to put food on their families' tables, often making not much more than minimum wage, and this ... was stealing half a week's wages from them."

Bond was set at $100,000 on Nov. 7 for Harrison. He is scheduled to appear for a status hearing on Jan. 9, Simonton said.

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Article sourced from

Southtown Star - Chicago,IL,US26 December 2007

Cop accused of extorting Hispa

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Southtown Star - Chicago,IL,US
26 December 2007