Fox Chicago Investigates CPD Officer Daniel Bora - Tamara's Client Interviewed for Story
Monday, May 18, 2009 at 09:00PM Daniel Bora: Costing Chicago Millions
By Jeff Goldblatt
Daniel Bora was not happy to see Fox Chicago News when asked why he's cost the city more than four million dollars in court settlements.
Fox Chicago discovered that since 1998, Bora has been sued at least twenty times. He was accused of abusing his authority.
The cases are remarkably consistent. Each one involves somebody who claims to have been falsely arrested, assaulted, or injured.
Take what Malcolm Gieren and Freddie Freeman say happened to them.
“I know what he did was very unprofessional, very unethical,” said Macolm Gieren.
Gieran, who has served time before, spent twenty months behind bars for heroin possession: a crime he says he didn't commit. After playing basketball one afternoon, he insists Bora and some other cops grabbed him and a half dozen other guys he'd never met. Then, the police officers brought them to the back of an alley for a cavity check.
So I grabbed the back of my belt buckle to resist so when they grabbed to pull my pants down. I tried to resist and it was a tussle with them in the middle of the alley trying to prevent them from pulling my pants down. I couldn't win. There were too many of them,” said Gieran.
Freddie Freeman can relate. He was with friends at a barbeque in Garfield Park when he says Bora and some other officers roughed him up after recognizing him from a previous court case against Chicago police.
“They just numb me up real bad and then I got a little concussion,” said Freeman.
He says he was shoved to the ground, arrested, and spent the next two nights in jail.
“You’re supposed to be out here servin and protectin, but most of them are out here servin and neglectin,” said Freeman.
Freeman settled the case for six thousand dollars. But, he says he now lives in fear of police, especially Officer Bora.
“I have panic attacks when I’m out here. I have to look over my back every time I see a police car,” added Freeman.
Freeman's attorney Jeffrey Granich tells us he routinely goes to court because officers like Bora make up charges.
“I think the Chicago Police Department picks on people who are powerless to stop them,” said Granich. I don’t know any business in America where the employees can cost the business millions of dollars and nothing gets done, except the Chicago police department. There it is ok,” said Granich.
Bora has never been in front of the police review board, which reviews officer conduct deemed fit for suspension or dismissal. We requested an interview with superintendant Jody Weiss, but got a statement instead saying that the department refuses to comment because there's another case now pending against Bora.
Private investigator and former state homicide investigator Paul Ciolino agreed to review the lawsuits against Bora for us.
“I’m not putting him on the streets any more cause how many pensions can you pay with four million dollars? How many new cops can you hire with four million dollars? Giving him the greatest benefit of the doubt, he’s still a huge liability for the city” said Ciolino.
When asked if he was surprised that all plaintiffs in the cases are African American, Ciolino said, “I can assure you if they were all white he wouldn’t be on the job,”
But somehow he keeps his job and keeps getting sued. For instance, at a building on West Van Buren, residents took Bora and a dozen other officers to court for raiding the wrong apartment. Witnesses claim after the police officers realized their mistake, the officers mixed baking flour "with some other substance they brought with them" and charged one resident with possession of a controlled substance. The case settled for $50,000.
Bora’s most infamous encounter dates back to 1998. After the Chicago Bulls championship, he was one of three officers accused of firing 24 rounds of ammo into the back of a car full of black teenagers, driving recklessly. The city settled the case for several million dollars. One of the kids, Francis Bell, got his eye shot out.
“They’re here to serve and protect, but that night they did me wrong,” said Bell’s mom.
In fairness to Bora, at least one other officer was sued with him in all twenty lawsuits. A few of the cases have been dismissed. But usually, they're settled for thousands of dollars before they ever go to trial.
“If you see a problem like that, there are problems and the problem is if this gets in front of a jury, we may spend twenty million dollars,” said Ciolino
After Bora refused to talk to our executive producer, we tried calling him outside his apartment building, but got no response.
Gieran's attorney Tamara Holder fears it's only a matter of time before Bora gets into bigger trouble.
“You never know what you're going to get with this guy. He's a loose cannon,” said Holder.
As for Gieran, he agreed to plea guilty in return for being released for time served.
"He took something away from me I can never get back, twenty months of my life for nothing,” said Gieran.
All this time, Gieran kept the jeans he claims Bora had to rip off him to perform the cavity
check. Only now, he's finally willing to put away the past. He's studying to become a guidance counselor to teach kids the lessons he believes officers like Bora never learned.
“How do you go home at night and sleep knowing you locked people up that didn’t have any drugs?” asked Gieran.
Officer Bora is now assigned to station 23 which covers the Wrigleyville area. All of his settlements have been paid for by the city with taxpayer money.
