Abbate Sentence Outrageous? Not So Much
Sentence is typical for crime
By STEVE RHODES
Updated 12:05 PM CST, Wed, Jun 24, 2009
Isn't it outrageous that convicted bartender beater Anthony Abbate was only sentenced to probation and not sent to jail?
Well, actually, no.
"[H]e's exactly the kind of person who gets exactly this kind of sentence every single day, in every single courtroom, in Cook County," writes Joe the Cop.
In general, very few folks get sent to prison for beating someone up in a bar - nor do folks charged with aggravated battery in any number of other instances, including rushing onto a major league baseball field and attacking an umpire.
Whet Moser at Chicagoland looked it up.
Abbate's sentence is not out of line.
"Really? You can be videotaped beating someone in Chicago, and if you're an officer of the peace you get probation? What other professions allow such behavior? Doctors? Teachers? News reporters?" Helen from Glen Ellyn wrote to Channel 5 in just one example of an outpouring of outrage that the sentence provoked.
In other words, did Abbate get off cheap because he's a police officer?
Again, the evidence doesn't support that theory.
Instead, a lot of folks want to hold Abbate to a different standard because he's a police officer. But everyone is supposed to be treated the same under the law.
"I'm a retired Chicago lieutenant," Jim O'Hara wrote to us. "In no way do I condone Abate's actions but, despite of his (former) profession, he has to be dealt with the same as a normal citizen, under the law. He's an idiot and a goon for beating the young lady. Prison for the crime would be fine, in a perfect world. People, shooting and stabbing others, don't get prison time if they're first offenders and the injuries aren't of a serious nature because of the penal system being overcrowded. He [could lose] his job, which wouldn't happen to a citizen under the same circumstances."
And that is where Abbate might fairly be treated differently because he's a police officer. He doesn't seem to have the temperament for the trade. The police board, however, is notorioius for refusing to fire even the cops whom police chiefs no longer want on their force.
But just for some perspective: Abbate was a drunken lout in a bar who acted horribly. Juan Johnson was just awarded $21 million - from the city, meaning your pocketbook - after it was determined he was wrongfully convicted of murder and wrongfully spent 11 years in prison.
Johnson’s attorneys say his wrongful conviction was part of a pattern of abuse by former Chicago police officer Reynaldo Guevera.
“In Johnson’s case, at least three people who identified him in the murder later said they did so only after Guevera or others working with him told them to, his attorneys said.”
“What we proved was his conviction was not an accident,” said one of the attorneys, Jon Loevy. “He was a victim of police misconduct.”
That story is barely making a media ripple.
"The Chicago Police Department and the city of Chicago has been on notice for at least 12 years that this was a pattern and practice of Officer Guevara," said Rob Warden of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
Guevera is retired; he has not been criminally charged.
In other words, Abbate's punishment exceeds his.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jun 24, 2009 8:01 AM CST
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