A Jan. 27 protest at the quarterly Cook County Merit Board meeting, pointing to the alleged gay bashing of Terry Phalen by Cook County Sheriff’s Deputies, received mainstream media attention, including from WLS Channel 7, Fox 32 TV, and the Chicago Tribune.
The Merit Board is charged with adjudicating over wrong-doing by Sheriff’s Deputies.
“The Board itself was obstinate, claiming they couldn’t do anything as the case hadn’t been brought to them by the Sheriff’s Department’s investigatory bodies,” said the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, which organized the protest. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department in turn claimed to Channel 7 that they hadn’t yet ruled on the case because Terry Phalen “has not yet filed a complaint with the Department-a blatant falsehood, CABN charged back.
In response, CABN faxed to a number of news outlets a copy of a memo written by Charles O. Holman of the Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Affairs Division. The memo, dated Nov. 8, 1999, was Holman’s report to his superior concerning the contents of his interview with Phalen, a result of Phalen’s request for an investigation the preceding Friday, eight days after he was bashed.
“We do not fault Channel 7 for reporting the Sheriff Department’s side of this story. We do request that Channel 7 and other news outlets expose this Sheriff’s Department falsehood, which attempts to blame the victim for their Department’s failure to respond to this anti-gay hate crime committed by its officers,” CABN said in a statement.
People’s Law Office has agreed to take up Phalen’s case. Phalen is a gay man who says he was bashed by Sheriff’s Deputies at the Cook County Jail while he was in custody Oct. 27. Lead attorney on the case will be Joey Mogul, herself an activist in the LGBT community.