Dozens of DUI arrests may be dismissed because the Chicago police officer who made them has come under suspicion of falsifying them and framing drivers.
Joe D. Parker, 59, an officer in the Chicago Police Department's Traffic Enforcement Unit, has been placed on desk duty pending an internal police investigation. He's the second cop to be accused of such wrongdoing.
Blues Singer Vanessa Davis may be one of Parker's victims, after Parker stopped her in 2005.
"He said, 'I smell liquor on you' and I said, 'You couldn't possibly, because I haven't been drinking,'" Davis said, recalling the night she was arrested.
A judge later threw out the DUI and the city paid Davis $100,000 to settle a lawsuit against Parker. Davis suffers from multiple sclerosis, and she said her anxiety from the arrest caused severe medical complications.
Davis said she pleaded guilty seven years ago to DUI because she was guilty, but she said that in this latest case, she was not.
Parker faces a federal lawsuit by another man, Wayne Jackson, who said he was stopped by Parker while driving home from work on Lake Shore Drive in 2006. Jackson said he was given a field-sobriety test, which he said he passed. Parker's arrest report said Jackson was swaying and that his speech was slurred.
Jackson said he passed a Breathalyzer test. Parker tried to explain that away, writing in his arrest report that Jackson "attempted to circumvent" the machine.
Now the Cook County State's Attorney's office is reviewing dozens of Parker's cases.
Last year, prosecutors dropped more than 50 cases after accusing Chicago officer John Haleas of perjury. He had been honored as one of the top DUI enforces in the state.
The perjury case against Haleas is still pending. He has said he is not guilty.
