The State's attorney's office has fired the two investigators blamed for Robert Maday's dramatic escape earlier this year.
Maday was the subject of an intense 26-hour manhunt in the northwestern suburbs earlier this year.
The officers, a 57-year-old investigator with 22 years experience and a 69-year-old retired Chicago policeman, were fired for not following proper procedure.
"It was clear that there were procedures that were not followed and I would refer to it as being lax," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Thursday.
Specifically, she said that Maday should have been transported in a vehicle with a cage.
"While it is true at that time we only had cage car assigned to the investigative bureau, that cage car was available that day for them to transport," Alvarez said.
Had a cage car been unavailable, procedure calls for one of the officers to ride in the back with Maday. Instead, both investigators sat in the front, she said.
One of those guards had transported Maday before, and Maday allegedly told a family member he could escape from them. The 69-year-old investigator was once the bodyguard for former Cook County state’s attorney Dick Devine.
The other investigator was a former supervisor who had been demoted. He was driving, and there was no barrier between the front and back seat.
Alvarez said the her office now has four cage cars available for the transport of prisoners. Investigators have also undergone mandatory retraining and U.S. Marshals have provided a refresher course to investigators on how to properly cuff and shackle prisoners.
