J-Fled Sued for Libel

Now this sounds like a winner of a suit:

• Two Chicago police officers are suing Supt. Jody Weis, alleging the city’s top cop defamed them when he stripped them of their badges after a high-profile internal investigation was launched into a group of officers who allegedly beat a handcuffed suspect.

  A global-positioning device in the officers’ squad car showed the Gresham District Tactical Unit officers, Lynn Meuris and Jason Vanna, weren't present during the alleged Oct. 11 beating and they were returned to street duty .

  But the two are now suing Weis, alleging the damage was done before they got their badges back last week. That includes Oct. 15 when they were taken from the district where they worked to police headquarters at 35th and Michigan and “escorted past a group of reporters and news cameras through the front entrance and to the Internal Affairs Division where they were officially stripped of their police powers.”

The Tribune also covers this:

• The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged that Weis held a news conference about the beating on Oct. 15, after which Meuris and Vanna were taken to police headquarters, where they were "escorted past a group of reporters and news cameras through the front entrance."

  Though Weis never identified Meuris and Vanna by name to the news media, he published their names in an internal communication sent to others in the Police Department, said their attorney, Daniel Herbert.

Something along the lines of $310,000 per officer sounds like a fair starting point. Go up from there. A public apology and flogging also sound good. This ought to be yet another nail in J-fled's career coffin. We can only hope he never gets any other job in law enforcement as is evidenced day-by-day.