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| Corey Deanes | CPD |
A former North Side cop who’s accused of inappropriately touching three women in separate incidents while on duty saw his bail slashed Wednesday. And, new details have emerged about the case that investigators built against 47-year-old Corey Deanes.
Judge Susan Ortiz yesterday said Deanes could go free to await trial by posting a $7,500 deposit bond, down from a $20,000 bond that was set at Deanes’ initial appearance by Judge John Lyke.
Deanes posted the reduced bond shortly after the hearing and was placed on electronic monitoring.
New information about the allegations against Deanes emerged from the state’s proffer, a detailed outline of the case that prosecutors say they will present against the now-suspended cop.
In the first alleged incident on Aug. 28, 2017, a 23-year-old woman told investigators that she noticed a marked police car down the street as she left work at a restaurant in the 2500 block of North Clark and walked to her nearby car. Not long after that, the woman was pulled over by a marked vehicle at Fullerton and Cannon Drive near Lincoln Park Zoo.
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| Approximate locations of the three alleged incidents. |
The officer, allegedly Deanes, told her that she made an illegal turn and then made a comment about her physique. Deanes returned to his patrol car with the woman’s license and insurance card, then pulled his squad next to the woman’s vehicle and told her to follow him, prosecutors said.
According to the proffer, Deanes led the woman to a dark area near the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and asked her to step out of her car. She complied, and Deanes began asking her about her relationship with a male co-worker that she had left the restaurant with and told her she would get a ticket if she did not provide him with her phone number.
Deanes raised his arms and motioned for the woman to give him a hug, but she put up her hands to block him, the woman said. Deanes allegedly moved in closer, slid his hand down her back, and touched her buttocks over her clothing. The woman pushed him away, and Deanes laughed, offering his hand for a handshake before he drove away, she said.
Deanes was not working with a partner on the night in question. The GPS system on the patrol car he used that night was “inoperable,” investigators found.
On July 1, 2018, Deanes responded to a call from a 29-year-old woman who found a homeless man on her porch when she arrived home from work around 11:30 p.m. in the 600 block of West Barry.
Even though Deanes answered the dispatch with a radio call that indicated he had a partner, the victim saw only Deanes standing outside her home when she approached him.
Deanes complimented her clothing and grabbed her by the wrist to expose shorts and a tank top that she was wearing under an outer layer, prosecutors said. The woman told Deanes that she was out late working to pay her rent, which prompted Deanes to begin searching her for money, “putting his finger in the front right pocket of her shorts and pulling it open,” according to allegations.
The state’s proffer said Deanes did not activate his body camera for the call and investigators found that his patrol car was not GPS-equipped. Prosecutors did not reveal where Deanes’ partner was at the time of the alleged incident.
In the last incident on July 13, 2018, a 22-year-old woman was walking south on Clark near Fullerton when she saw a marked police car pass by. As she arrived at her apartment, the patrol car pulled up behind her and Deanes lowered his window, calling her a “pretty little thing” and asking why she was walking alone, prosecutors said.
Deanes got out of his car, grabbed and hugged the woman, asked her for her phone number and for a date, the woman alleged. The woman laughed, backed away, and went inside as Deanes returned to his patrol car, prosecutors said.
Inside, the woman called the 19th District station to report the incident. A sergeant responded to her home and launched an initial investigation.
Prosecutors said GPS on Deanes’ car show that he was near the 2300 block of North Clark at the time of the incident. Video from a nearby business corroborated aspects of the woman’s allegations, according to the proffer.
Police dispatch records indicate that Deanes worked with a partner that night, but prosecutors do not say where the partner was at the time of the alleged incident.
A CPD spokesperson said in an email that the department “wouldn’t comment” on whether Deanes actually had partners during the two incidents in 2018 “as it speaks to what could be classified as witness information.” The department also would not say if any of Deanes’ partners on the night of reported incidents were being investigated for failure to report his alleged conduct.
Deanes is charged with three felony counts of official misconduct – forbidden act; felony aggravated battery in a public place; and two counts of misdemeanor battery. Prosecutors said all three women reported their allegations to authorities promptly and all three identified Deanes in photo arrays as the officer involved in their encounters.
He was pulled from the 19th District eleven days after the third incident, stripped of his police powers, and assigned to a unit that takes police reports over the phone. The city suspended Deanes’ pay immediately upon the filing of felony charges, the department said.
The 19th District where Deanes worked spans from Fullerton to Lawrence and from the Chicago River to Lake Michigan. Deanes was regularly assigned to the overnight shift on beat 1934, which encompasses the area from Belmont to Diversey and Halsted to Lake Michigan.
