Untitled Document
John Gillette, the Sangamon County Sheriff’s
deputy alleged to have manhandled a motorist who was having a kidney-stone
attack, has apparently been the subject of at least 27 complaints and has
been previously evaluated for his fitness for duty, according to court
documents. The documents were entered in response to the
motorist’s request for Gillette’s internal-investigation
records, filed under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The motorist,
dentist Mark Gekas, says that Gillette and two other officers shoved him
into his truck, bent him over the seat and handcuffed him to the steering
wheel as he was telling them he was in excruciating pain because of a
kidney stone. X-rays taken later that day at the hospital showed that the
encounter had left Gekas with two dislocated ribs. In an interview conducted about three months after
the August 2006 incident, Gekas told Illinois
Times that Gillette appeared
uncontrollably angry, “red and rabid,” and offensively profane
as he ordered Gekas to exit his vehicle. “I look at him, and I go,
‘You’re kidding!’” Gekas said. Gekas had apparently failed to use his turn signal
while turning left from Wabash Avenue onto MacArthur Boulevard. A Jerome
police officer had stopped Gekas, but Gekas explained that he was in the
midst of a medical emergency and that his doctor had told him to drive
straight to the hospital. The Jerome officer told Gekas to call an
ambulance instead, but Gekas instead drove away. A few blocks farther
north, at the intersection with Laurel Avenue, Gillette pulled his squad
car in front of the dentist’s truck, and approached Gekas’
window with his gun drawn. “I wake up to that gun, looking down that gun
barrel,” Gekas said. “It bothers you. You don’t think it
does until you get it.”
Gekas filed a complaint against Gillette, but in
November 2006, after an internal investigation involving “reports,
dispatch tapes and interviewing 10 witnesses,” Chief Deputy Tony
Sacco sent Gekas a letter telling him that Gillette had been exonerated.
Gekas filed a FOIA request seeking access to his file, as well as any other
internal investigations involving Gillette. That request was denied and
appealed, eventually ending up in court, where Macoupin County Judge Kenneth Deihl last month ordered the SCSO
to turn over four of Gillette’s 27 IA investigations.
Rob Power, the assistant state’s attorney
representing the sheriff’s department, filed a motion asking Deihl to
clarify “the reason that four case files are not protected by FOIA
exemptions when 23 are.”
Attached to his motion was a letter from Lt. Debra
Brown to Powers, explaining her efforts to gather all Gillette files. In
two instances, she discovered that an investigation into one complaint led
to the discovery of other violations. One such record wasn’t found in
the IA office but rather in a file in Sacco’s office containing a
March 2000 investigation into Gillette’s “fitness for
duty.”
Sacco declined to comment on this particular case,
but says such evaluations are typically ordered whenever an
employee’s behavior “raises a red flag for us.” Sacco
listed personal problems, divorce, or a “series of complaints”
as examples of such red flags. The evaluation begins with an appointment
with a psychologist or psychiatrist, and may result in a modification of
the employee’s duties, a referral to the employee assistance program,
or disciplinary action, Sacco said.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2008.
