A Chicago cop who perjured herself under oath about showing a photo-lineup to a robbery victim who was shot in the leg during a liquor store stick-up was allowed to resign last week rather than face criminal charges – even after she confessed to prosecutors she committed the crime.
According to CBS2, former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez admitted Allyson Bogdalek was “untruthful” when she testified on the stand that she hadn’t shown a photo-spread to the victim prior to arresting Ranceallen Hankerson, who was charged with attempted murder in connection with the robbery.
But after she testified, Hankerson’s defense lawyer played a video recording from officer Bogdalek’s patrol car that proved otherwise.
In the video, Bogdalek can be heard in a cell phone conversation asking a superior officer if she should arrest Hankerson even though the store owner failed to identify him in the photo-array she showed him after the stick-up.
After the trial, Bogdalek admitted she lied and indeed showed the photo-lineup to the victim. She confessed that police detectives, multiple superiors and Dominick Catinilla, her partner, encouraged her to lie.
Bogdalek told prosecutors that she wanted to inventory the photo-array but officer Catinella wanted her to forget about it because it “hurt the case” against Hankerson.
Due to Bogdalek’s misconduct, Alverez’s office swiftly dropped the charges against Hankerson.
In 2013, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman opened an investigation and requested Bodalek be charged with three felonies: perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct.
Freeman offered officer Bogdalek’s partner Dominick Catinella immunity in exchange for testifying against her if he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of attempted obstruction of justice.
However, Alvarez ordered Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman not to file criminal charges against the perjurious cop, but gave no written explanation as to why.
According to prosecutors, Bogdalek became anxious after she was unable to clear her conscience over the lie. So she went to her superior, Sgt. John Ward and asked him what to do.
Sgt. Ward called officer Catinella to his office, and asked him if they’d shown the victim a photo lineup.
Catinella said, “no.”
Sgt. Ward then assured Bogdalek the “argument was settled,” and told her never to mention it again.
The line up was never inventoried.
That information became available after a Chicago civil rights attorney filed a suit against Chicago Police for stonewalling his FOIA requests seeking to obtain public records about Bogdalek and Catinella lying under oath.
According loevy.com, officer Bogdalek was a defendant in three separate civil rights cases: Martinez et al. v. City of Chicago (which resulted in a $650,000 settlement against Chicago), Aldridge v. Haggerty and Martinez v. City of Chicago.
After taking criticism from the public for being soft on prosecuting cops, Sally Daly, a spokesperson for the State’s Attorney’s office said, “The ultimate analysis in this case led to the determination that the State would not have been able to meet the legal standard that is required, which is proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“We face a reality here in Cook County, and around the country, that it is extremely difficult to convince judges or juries to convict police officers of misconduct in the line of duty.”
University of Chicago Law School professor and civil rights attorney, Craig Futterman, viewed the case and told Salon, “If she’s not going to prosecute perjury in this case, it’s difficult to imagine any case in which she would. It sends a strong message to police officers not only that this is OK, but to keep on doing it. This is how we win our cases. She’s not going to bite the hand that feeds her convictions.”
“Police perjury is so common here in Chicago that we call it ‘testilying'”, he said. “The state’s attorney has relied on those very lies to win convictions.”
Hankerson’s defense attorney, Nick Graspas, a former Cook County prosecutor said Bogdalek should have been fired.
“I lost all respect for that office at that point. I thought that when this was going to be reviewed that it was going to be seen for what it is. You can’t reconcile the video with that testimony.”
Until her resignation, Bogdalek made $84,450 after being relegated to desk duty for over three years, while being investigated by Internal Affairs, according to records obtained by the Better Government Association.
Alvarez was voted out of office in March losing to Kim Foxx who led with 61 percent of the votes with 76 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the Huffington Post.
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