Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from the March 18 meeting of the Springfield City Council.
Four Springfield police officers were disciplined – and one of them will serve a six-day unpaid suspension – in connection with their work at the site of a Sept. 5 car-motorcycle collision in which a recently retired cop was charged with drunken driving and the couple on the motorcycle were hurt.
A family member of one of the people injured, as well as a critic of the police who was taken into custody during a Sept. 9 protest outside City Hall about police conduct in several incidents in Sangamon County, said the punishments were too light.
“I’m appalled by it,” Rani Jordan, 51, the mother of Chelsey Farley, told Illinois Times. “It is horrible. They did not uphold their duties. … That was but a slap on the wrist.”
Results of the Springfield Police Department’s internal investigation, released March 12, don’t say whether former officer Michael Egan, 51, who retired from the department earlier that same day, received preferential treatment from his former colleagues. Critics of the department have contended that he did.
But the SPD report, quoting DUI experts from Macon County and Stanford University, addressed two concerns voiced by the public.
The report said multiple glasses of water Egan drank at the scene, apparently before police arrived, wouldn’t have reduced his blood-alcohol level in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
The report also said it wasn’t unusual, or against recommended procedures, for someone suspected of DUI not to be immediately placed in handcuffs and ushered into the back seat of a responding squad car.
Several people at the scene, including those who posted smartphone video to social media, as well as Farley’s family members and other members of the public, have said they were upset that Springfield police failed to keep Egan in the back seat of a police car and allowed him to roam the crime scene, stumble around and accept multiple glasses of water to drink.
Police Sgt. Andrew Zander, who joined the department in 2001 and whose base pay was $129,982 in 2024, received a six-day suspension, which would require him to either take unpaid time off or be docked six days’ pay.
Receiving written reprimands, which were placed in their personnel files and didn’t result in any lost pay, were officers Adam Yandor, Edward Wheeler and Richard Singletary.
Yandor joined the department in 2022, and his base pay in fiscal 2024 was $90,265, according to city records. Wheeler also joined in 2022, and his base pay was $85,514. Singletary joined in 2021, and his base pay was $90,265.
A summary of the internal investigation findings said Zander was suspended for “failure to supervise” and were “the result of scene management issues and adherence to the rules and policies of the Springfield Police Department.”
The summary said Yandor, Wheeler and Singletary’s discipline was based on “knowledge and violation of rules and order.” All four officers were ordered to attend and complete retraining, according to the summary.
Police reports said Egan was driving a 2018 Toyota SUV northbound on East Lake Shore Drive about 9:20 p.m. Sept. 5 when he failed to yield the right of way and made a left turn, without using a turn signal, in front of a southbound Kawasaki motorcycle near the entrance to the Anchor Boat Club.
The motorcycle, driven by Trevor Hopkins, with his girlfriend, Chelsey Farley, riding as a passenger, then struck the passenger side of Egan’s car.
Farley, 31, of Springfield, a mother of two and owner of a Springfield arts and crafts shop, suffered life-threatening injuries, including broken bones and a traumatic head injury. She ended up spending more than seven weeks in HSHS St. John’s Hospital before being released, and now walks with a cane or walker, according to her mother.
Hopkins, 29, a self-employed auto mechanic from Springfield, also was injured, though not as severely.
Egan, whose annual base pay as an officer with 20 or more years of experience was $129,982, was charged with aggravated DUI, DUI and making an improper left turn. He has pleaded not guilty and was released while he awaits trial. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 28.
Mark Wykoff, one of Egan’s attorneys, declined to comment on the results of the police department’s internal investigation. Illinois State Police handled the criminal investigation on the crash.
Springfield Police Chief Kenneth Scarlette told Illinois Times he was declining to comment beyond his written statement. Scarlette has previously criticized Egan for his alleged conduct, saying it embarrassed the police force.
Scarlette said in a statement with the release of internal investigation documents that the closure of the investigation underscores “the high level of accountability the Springfield Police Department strives to achieve in public service and trust. It is our job to work to maintain the highest standards for each and every member of our department every day, and to serve the community to best of our abilities.”’
In response to comments from Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano at the March 18 City Council meeting, Scarlette said there was “no intention by any of my officers” to delay a blood-alcohol test for Egan after the crash even though bodycam footage shows no such test being administered.
Illinois State Police, the agency that took over the criminal investigation of the case to avoid a conflict of interest for the Springfield department, obtained a search warrant to test Egan’s blood-alcohol level through a blood test rather than a breath test, Scarlette said.
That test showed Egan’s blood-alcohol level “more than double the legal limit, and he will be held accountable for that in court,” Scarlette said.
Results of a blood test are more likely to withstand legal scrutiny in court than a breath test, the chief said.
Hours of police-worn camera video released with other investigation documents include an exchange with Zander and Egan as Egan is standing at the site of the crash, with bystanders in the area. The following dialogue begins at about 23:45 on Zander’s bodycam video, which is available online.
“What’s up, buddy?” Egan said as Zander approached.
“How are you doing, pal?” Zander responded.
“This ain’t good. It sucks,” Egan said.
Egan then told Zander that he wasn’t at fault in the accident and said he would like to go inside the Boat Club.
“No, you gotta hang out here,” Zander said.
“Can you keep me?” Egan asked.
“Yeah,” Zander said.
Illinois Times has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city to find out specifically what the police officers did wrong to justify being disciplined.
A statement from David Amerson, staff attorney for the labor committee of the Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association – the union that represents the disciplined Springfield sergeant and three officers – shed some light on the situation.
Amerson said, “The policy violations sustained involved deactivating body cameras too early, but still after the scene was turned over to ISP and SPD’s direct involvement was complete. In most jurisdictions, this would not even violate policy. Every interaction with Egan is captured on body camera.”
Amerson added, “The other policy concern was that there were issues with scene management. As you can see from the body cameras, this is a very chaotic scene. At multiple times, civilians approach officers close to the area of the crash site and engage them in conversation. Due to inadequate personnel, one direction of traffic was also not properly blocked, leading to civilian vehicles passing near the scene.
“Throughout SPD’s involvement, civilians would walk directly up to Egan, and the officer standing near him, to take pictures/videos of him with their phones. While this can constitute policy violations if you were applying a strict standard, as Springfield is known to do, these are certainly not the hallmarks of a ‘cover-up.’”
Amerson said the union believes the four officers “did the best they could on a very complex call. Our first concern is with the victims, and it is regretful that some of the more sensationalized social-media accusations have caused the community so much additional distress.”
He said that Springfield police officers didn’t provide any water to Egan. Zander said on bodycam video that DUI suspects shouldn’t be given anything to drink at the scene of a police stop.
The internal affairs report said Springfield police sought the professional opinion of DUI expert Officer Larry Brooks, lead instructor at the Macon County Law Enforcement Training Center, a state-certified police academy.
The report said that according to Brooks, water doesn’t affect blood-alcohol content (BAC) levels, as measured in alcohol breath tests or blood tests. The report quoted a Stanford online article that said, “Contrary to popular belief, nothing can lower BAC except time; coffee, cold showers and chugging glasses of water will not help you sober up any faster.”
When asked about the way someone suspected of DUI is detained or restrained, Brooks said, “It is not common practice to immediately detain a person suspected of DUI. The circumstances will always dictate tactics, and once the situation is going to involve waiting on another agency, the suspect might be sat in the back of a squad car, especially if there is a crowd around the scene. There are advantages of getting the suspected DUI driver walking around getting more evidence such as uncoordinated movements, slow or staggering steps.”
Springfield resident Tiara Standage agreed with the mother of Farley that the disciplinary action wasn’t enough, though neither had an alternative recommendation.
Standage, 35, was among a few people taken into police custody after the Sept. 9 protest outside City Hall in which people vented frustration with Springfield police about the Egan case, a Sept. 4 police-involved shooting in the 1100 block of South 18th Street in Springfield and the July 6 shooting of Sonya Massey by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy inside her rural Woodside Township home.
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The demonstration included a scuffle between protesters and about a dozen Springfield police officers with plastic shields. Standage alleged one of the officers grabbed her by the hair, then choked and pulled her to the ground by the hoodie she was wearing.
She said she was taken into custody, handcuffed and put in a squad car for an hour before being released. Standage, the founder of Intricate Minds, a harm-reduction nonprofit organization, said police told her she was being ticketed for aggravated battery to a police officer in lieu of being arrested.
Standage said she was never formally charged. She said State’s Attorney John Milhiser, in a January meeting with her and several police officers, agreed not to charge her if she agreed to work to “bridge the gap between Black people and the police.”
Reached March 14, Milhiser didn’t dispute Standage’s description of the meeting. Milhiser said the “informal pretrial diversion” involving Standage was “appropriate in this case” to improve relations between police agencies and the public and enhance public safety in the future.
Standage said she never agreed to Milhiser’s offer and said it “felt like blackmail and a request for cheap labor.”
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This article appears in The future of electric vehicles.
The woke brigade certainly won’t be happy about this. What will they do in response?
Scream at the city council? Get into another shoving match with the police? Angrily post on Facebook?
“Amerson added, “The other policy concern was that there were issues with scene management. As you can see from the body cameras, this is a very chaotic scene. At multiple times, civilians approach officers close to the area of the crash site and engage them in conversation. Due to inadequate personnel, one direction of traffic was also not properly blocked, leading to civilian vehicles passing near the scene”’
As someone who came upon the scene of this crash, this comment is spot on. . I was in the middle of everything before I even realized it was an accident scene.
This came to my attention when I saw the mangled motorcycle sitting in the other lane. At that point, I turned around to leave the scene and on my way out one of the officers slammed his hand on the hood of my SUV.
Public service is a calling, a commitment to the betterment of society, driven by empathy and a desire to contribute to the community. The salary of a civil servant should never be 2-3 times the salary of the people they serve. According to the US census only 15.3% of Americans make over $100,000 a year. In Illinois, the average salary is $54,000 a year. Reward for service has a different effect than offering a financial incentive to serve.
KendraMichele,
The salary of a civil servant should be whatever price it takes to attract people to do the job. If you want cops that are paid 40k a year, you’re going to get Schmucks like Sean Grayson.
What a bizarre comment to make, in a town whose entire economy depends on civil servants getting paid good, middle-class wages.