CHICAGO — Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped official misconduct and aggravated battery charges against an Oak Lawn police officer seen in a viral video punching a 17-year-old boy in the head during an arrest in July 2022.
In a statement, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said, “After a thorough review, we concluded that the evidence is insufficient to meet our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to move forward with the prosecution of this case.”
But documents secured by CWBChicago show that the state’s attorney’s office rushed to get a grand jury indictment against officer Patrick O’Donnell just one day before the Illinois State Police unit investigating the cop’s use of force was scheduled to conduct a comprehensive review of the investigation to determine if the agency supported charging.
In one report, an ISP investigator wrote that “not discussing [an] investigation with [ISP’s Public Integrity Task Force] before charging an officer has never happened in the last 20 years of PITF investigations.”
The arrest and video
On July 27, 2022, Hadi Abu-Atelah, then 17 years old, ran away when Oak Lawn cops pulled over a car he was riding in. Officers chased Abu-Atelah, who was carrying a crossbody bag, and eventually tackled him in a street.
Police dashcam video and a witness’ phone recording showed O’Donnell striking Abu-Atelah repeatedly while the boy was pinned to the ground. Authorities said the strikes were necessary because Abu-Atelah refused to release the crossbody bag, which contained a firearm.
The investigation
Two days after the incident, when Oak Lawn’s police chief decided not to ask the ISP’s task force to investigate the department’s handling of the arrest, Risa Lanier, the top assistant to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, sent a letter activating the PITF investigation, according to an ISP investigative report.
PITF’s investigation ended nearly six months later, on January 16, 2023, and the state police turned over the entire file and supporting documentation to LEAD, the Law Enforcement Accountability Division (LEAD) at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, a second ISP report said.
Charging decision
On February 9, the state’s attorney’s office asked PITF to file a complaint and charge O’Donnell before February 16, according to a memo from ISP Asst. Deputy Director Matt Gainer wrote to his supervisor. Prosecutors “provided no reason as to why there was a timeline for charging,” Gainer stated.
Rather than file charges, PITF asked to meet with prosecutors to discuss the case since there had been no conversations between the agencies since investigators handed over their case file on January 16, the memo states.
“Not discussing [an] investigation with PITF before charging an officer has never happened in the last 20 years of PITF investigations,” Gainer said in the memo. Gainer explained that he told LEAD that “ISP was not against charging” but “wanted to conduct a proper case review.”
Gainer said he told the state’s attorney’s office that he wanted to wait until after the February 15 case review to “ensure the investigation was completed and we as an agency were in agreement with proposed charges.”
Also on February 9, Gainer instructed investigators not to file charges because the case review had been scheduled for February 15 since January. He said LEAD contacted him again on February 9 to advise that Kim Foxx and Lanier “were upset with my decision” not to charge O’Donnell “and [they] were going to speak directly with” ISP Director Brendan Kelly.
Finally, on February 14, the day before ISP was scheduled to review the O’Donnell case and reach its conclusions, prosecutors secured a grand jury’s direct indictment of O’Donnell, according to multiple ISP documents.
Prosecutors never notified ISP of their plans and, according to Gainer’s memo, the state’s attorney’s office put one of its own investigators on the stand as a grand jury witness rather than calling a state police agent. The state’s attorney’s investigator had “a limited role of assistance in [the] initial investigation,” Gainer explained.
According to Gainer, someone leaked news of the grand jury indictment to the Chicago Sun-Times on the same day it came down. ISP learned about the leak when a reporter contacted Oak Lawn police about the indictment and Oak Lawn asked ISP if it was true.
Director writes to Foxx
On March 3, ISP Director Brendan Kelly sent a two-page letter to Foxx to “express concerns” about the O’Donnell investigation.
He made it clear that the letter was not to “quarrel with or critique the charging decision” but rather to express his concern with the failure to include “standard involvement or input” from the investigators who handled the case.
“In a departure from well-established practice of over 20 years, there was not the usual discussion of the investigation with the PITF or with Special Agents regarding potential evidentiary issues…prior to charging,” Kelly wrote.
The director was also concerned that prosecutors had asked investigators to swear out a complaint against O’Donnell before they changed course and went to the grand jury.
The “decision to swear out a complaint is an exclusive police function,” Kelly wrote. “A police officer must believe, based upon the evidence developed in their investigation, that there is probable cause an offense was committed before they attest to the charge(s) in a complaint. ISP’s Major Case Counsel review was scheduled for February 15 to assess this threshold legal requirement that our officers must meet.”
Kelly acknowledged that ISP and Foxx’s office held a meeting in 2021 that evolved into a strong relationship between the agencies in the fight against expressway shootings.
He suggested that the agencies work out a new agreement to build a similarly strong relationship regarding investigations like the one involving O’Donnell.”
Kelly said he wanted to ensure the agreement “reflects best practices and comports with both the spirit and letter of the Police and Community Relations Improvement Act.”
“For example,” he wrote, “in no other county in the state does a public corruption task force include investigators from the very State’s Attorney’s Office that will eventually review the same task force’s investigations.”
“I am confident we can elevate and even transform our partnership with LEAD,” Kelly concluded.
State’s Attorney’s statement
CWBChicago asked the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office about its decision to drop charges against O’Donnell and for its input on the ISP documents. The office replied with the following statement:
“After a thorough review, we concluded that the evidence is insufficient to meet our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to move forward with the prosecution of this case. Prosecutors must evaluate the evidence at every stage of a criminal proceeding, and act accordingly in the pursuit of justice. Throughout the pendency of this case, the CCSAO has been in communication with the victim, his family, and attorney as we sought an appropriate resolution. Today we asked the court to dismiss the case, and the court granted our motion.”
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