Cook County Sheriff’s Dept. Corruption Alleged

Cook County Sheriff James O’Grady on Saturday pressed for the firing of two of his officers as a newspaper reported allegations that the department had suppressed investigations of mob murders and internal corruption for years.

The two officers, who are accused of robbing a drug dealer, were suspended Friday after reporters sought comment from O’Grady for an article on the alleged corruption published in early Sunday editions of the Chicago Tribune.

The report said sheriff’s officers have concealed evidence, thwarted efforts to interview witnesses and hidden their own relationships with suspects and victims in murder investigations dating back 15 years.

On Friday, Lt. William H. Martin, 55, a 22-year veteran of the department, was suspended for his alleged participation in the 1986 robbery of a suburban drug dealer.

Deputy Larry Geanes, 39, a six-year employee of the Court Services department, also was suspended for alleged involvement in the scheme.

Criminal Charges Possible

O’Grady will press the county state’s attorney’s office to file criminal charges against the men and will go before a merit board to seek their dismissal, spokesman William Currie said Saturday.

Neither officer was available for comment.

The Sheriff’s Department, with headquarters in Chicago, runs the county jail and has a 500-member police force to cover the 177 square miles of unincorporated Cook County and forest preserve land.

No Convictions

According to the Tribune, no one has been convicted of an organized crime murder in Cook County in more than two decades. The Sheriff’s Department has run the investigations of most of the estimated 70 organized crime murders in the Chicago area in the last 25 years.

The case in which the two men have been suspended began to unravel Feb. 2, 1987, after Dwayne Henderson, another drug dealer and police informant, was shot twice in the head. His body was dumped in an isolated area.

Robbery Ring

For 1 1/2 years, high-ranking sheriff’s officials prevented investigators from aggressively pursuing the case, the paper said, quoting unidentified sources. The allegations include accusations that Henderson, along with sheriff’s officers and jail guards, set up a robbery and extortion ring that preyed on suburban drug dealers, the newspaper said.

Rather than expose allegations that fellow officers and jail guards were suspects in the case, high-ranking sheriff’s officers hid evidence and sanitized files, the Tribune said, citing interviews and department records.

O’Grady, elected sheriff in 1986, said he first heard of the cover-up allegations in mid-1988. By O’Grady’s account, some high-ranking officers gave investigators the impression they should “tread slowly” in efforts to solve the murder.

“I was so concerned about the investigation that I let the FBI know about it,” O’Grady said. “I wasn’t happy about the case then, and I’m still not happy about the case’s status.”