Perhaps that's too mild a statement.
The U.S. Court of Appeals would affirm the verdict and praise Laverty for going "above and beyond the call of duty" and upholding "the highest ethical standards of the United States justice system." Jones filed a civil suit. Judge Cousins threw out the case against Jones "with prejudice"--which meant Jones could not be tried again. "And what would have happened if I'd kept going down the road that they traveled? "A native of Chicago, Mr. Laverty worked for the Rock Island Railroad after graduating from high school in 1958. I drew my revolver and I went up to his car door and he got real scared. He avoids the city, he says, because he fears policemen with long memories. Perhaps that's too mild a statement. Jeff Haas, who took the call in Judge Cousins's courtroom, says that in his 35 years as a lawyer he's never seen or heard of another officer doing what Laverty did. Attempts to get them to comment for this story were unsuccessful. Within hours, Mr. Laverty was on the witness stand, revealing that he had written his conclusions in a report that had not been turned over to the defense. Others present heard other things. Laverty's intervention, so highly praised by the judiciary, was not appreciated in some quarters of the police department. He was later moved to midnights and put in a one-man car. But why Laverty spoke up might not be the best question here.
By this time Jon Burge was supervising the Area Two violent crimes unit. Haas also thinks Laverty knew testifying could end his career in homicide, which he loved. But this fall Laverty told me he liked the job in personnel: he got to work days, the city paid his way through law school, and he thought he was doing something important in helping to supervise the hiring of new officers. I pulled him by the shoulder and he fell on the ground. "I would never trust them, or not look over my shoulder, but I don't have any grudges against them. He told me that one time he made a routine call for a felony review assistant to come to the station to approve charges and no one showed up, and that another time a prosecutor in a murder case failed to "rehabilitate him on redirect." He worked initially as a clerk and later as a switchman and detective. Whitepages people search is the most trusted directory. If he embarrassed them, OK.
'God told me to talk to you.' Laverty said that as he cruised at 30 miles an hour a call came over the radio--"dark brown car, robbery in progress." This year, I finally got to see it. Taylor says he kept the sample in his refrigerator for years. In upholding the damage award, a federal appeals court said that the case revealed "a frightening abuse of power by members of the Chicago police force" in an attempt "to railroad George Jones. That day is emblazoned on my psyche forever. When he was finally able to be questioned, a week later, Area Two detectives James Houtsma and Victor Tosello asked him who'd attacked them. In his civil suit a psychiatrist testified that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. After five years as a patrolman he went to Area One homicide, commanded by lieutenant Walter Bosco. I'm afraid they're going to drop a dirty one on me.'" I'd come home at night and my wife said I should take my clothes off and hang them outside.
Many are silent even now, as innocent men sit in prison serving long sentences. He served in the Army from 1962 to 1964, then was in the Army Reserve.In 1968, Mr. Laverty became a Chicago police officer.
He recalled losing his patience just once, with a man who'd been arrested for molesting and murdering a child. 'It's a urine sample. If he embarrassed me in doing that, it didn't matter to him. Check Reputation Score for Frank Laverty in Port Saint Lucie, FL - View Criminal & Court Records | Photos | Address, Emails & Phone Number | Personal Review | $50 - $59,999 Income & Net Worth So why did Laverty do it? That partner was Larry Nitsche, now director of investigations in the corporation counsel's office and no fan of the man he used to ride with. (For a more complete account of the Pointer case, read Steve Bogira's book, Courtroom 302, to which I'm indebted here.) The old guys always wanted it, kept it. Now I can't answer the cross without perjury. It's called apitherapy. "He didn't feel under pressure to conform to the group....Laverty says 'I'm no angel, but I don't think the shit we did was right.' "He said to me, 'Here, hold on to this for me, will you?' Two of the defendants began sitting in on them--permissible but highly unusual. At 16 he went to work in the Rock Island Railroad payroll department, where he soon learned that he could make much more money as a railroad policeman, a job he applied for and eventually got. "What bothers him isn't what Laverty did, he says, but how he did it.
"At great personal cost, he exposed the street files," said Jane Bohman, the coalition's executive director. But the police did not resume their search for the right one. Purvy referred to this man as George Anderson, described his cap, and said he was the leader of a gang that hung around the local public school. “There is a system in place that keeps people homeless and poor and it's so much bigger than any particular organization.” Sure, maybe for a while he went along with stuff. "I'm not taking myself out of it," he said in the statement, "saying that I was an angel or saint or something like that on the police department. He'd later testify that at some point Houtsma told him there was no way the prosecution of Jones could go forward. Deas, according to his own subsequent testimony, told Laverty his hands were tied because the state's attorney's office had already indicted Jones.
The African-American commander of all Area Two detectives, a policeman since 1947, he was told by Laverty two weeks after the murder that Houtsma and Tosello's case was a wreck. "He was Frank Serpico without the glamor," Taylor said. " "The biggest thing he taught me was to be honest on the job and don't compromise your word.
To Laverty, all this made Houtsma and Tosello's case against Jones look extremely weak.
Because detectives Houtsma and Tosello weren't available, Laverty and another detective went.