In riveting testimony Tuesday, high-ranking law enforcement officials tripped over themselves trying to explain to a federal jury how they handled the early days of the explosive reports that an off-duty Chicago police officer had pummeled a female bartender half his size — and that it all had been caught on video.
Debra Kirby, who was head of the Internal Affairs Division at the time and remains a high-ranking member of the department, told the jury at the civil trial stemming from the 2007 beating that during a phone call she told a Cook County prosecutor she wanted Officer Anthony Abbate charged with a felony. She denied ever seeking a misdemeanor offense.
"Absolutely I never said that," Kirby said of the lesser charge. "I wanted him charged with a felony."
Minutes later, internal affairs Sgt. Joseph Stehlik told the jury that he, Kirby and others discussed the beating as a misdemeanor, or simple battery, and that he heard Kirby tell that to the prosecutor during the same phone call. He never heard her seek a felony charge in the conversation, he said.
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