Case dismissed against man in beating of Chicago officer

Source: Associated Press

Updated 3:10 pm, Saturday, August 19, 2017

CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors dropped a gun charge against a Chicago man implicated in the 2014 beating of an off-duty police sergeant after the case unraveled amid questions about the actions of the sergeant and two other officers who were with him.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Cook County prosecutors released Joseph Baskins from jail, saying they couldn't prove their case stemming from an October 2014 confrontation in a parking garage. Records show that the three officers, who declined to speak with reporters, gave authorities varying accounts of what happened.

Chicago police initially portrayed the incident as a robbery, with Baskins as the culprit and Sgt. Patrick Gilmore, who suffered brain damage, as the victim. A spokeswoman for State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office wouldn't say why it took the office nearly three years to drop the charges.
 
The altercation between the officers and Baskin began in an elevator and spilled out onto a deck. Baskins, who is African-American, says the officers, all white, never identified themselves as police and made racial slurs. He also says he took Gilmore's gun to keep himself or someone else from getting shot.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Charges-dismissed-against-man-in-beating-of-11944593.php