After weeks of mounting pressure to do so, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has said that she will stop using controversial Chicago police officer Richard Fiorito as a witness in traffic court, with her office stating, “There are serious questions about Fiorito’s credibility.”
Fiorito is currently under a grand jury investigation, led by Alvarez, for making multiple suspect DUI arrests of Boystown motorists.
Two weeks ago Alvarez removed Fiorito from active duty in Boystown, as the Chicago beat cop faced 21 lawsuits filed against his conduct and two videos showing Fiorito making questionable arrests.
However, attorney Jon Erickson, a lawyer representing many of the Chicagoans that have filed suit against Fiorito, noted that Alvarez was still using the officer as a witness in traffic court to help prosecute individuals Fiorito had arrested for DUIs.
Erickson stated that using Fiorito to prosecute people he arrested for crimes that he was currently under investigation for was “simply ridiculous” and that many lawyers he had talked with about the decision were “appalled.”
Following his removal from active duty, the number of lawsuits filed against Fiorito doubled to 42 and the cases of the two Fiorito arrestees seen in the video evidence submitted against the veteran officer were dropped or reversed.
Erickson believes these new developments were large contributors in Alvarez’s decision to stop using Fiorito as a traffic court witness and he expects many of the pending cases with Fiorito as the arresting officer to be dropped soon stating, “My clients with pending DUI cases are looking forward to Anita Alvarez quickly dismissing their charges.”
It still is unclear, however, if Alvarez will use Fiorito’s written records in traffic court.