Bogus Arrest Triggered Parole Revocation and Loss of his Child From [HERE] A Black man claims he was beaten, harassed, Tasered and jailed on trumped-up charges. Jerrad McGill, 32, of North Chicago, filed suit Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court in Chicago against the city of North Chicago and the police officers involved in his arrest on Oct. 26, 2011.

Named as defendants in the suit are officers Arthur Strong, Johnny Parasain and 19-year veteran of the force, Sgt. Sal Cecala (in photo), who both wrote and signed-off on a use-of-force report on the arrest. The report alleges that McGill was wanted on two warrants, under different names, when he was spotted by patrol officers near Tee Pee Liquor Mart, 1801 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and took off running. Officers tackled McGill and used an arm bar on him in wresting his arms and hands from under his body.

The report says nothing about use of a Taser and stated that McGill showed no visible injuries.

But the complaint tells a different story: that McGill did not run or resist, that he was forced to the ground and placed in a arm bar after insisting the warrants were for his brother and that he was Tasered while in the arm-bar hold. McGill also alleges that, after his arrest, Cecala entered his cell and ripped the Taser prongs from his back. His attorney, Kevin O’Connor, hopes to prove taser use through video evidence on all 24 stun guns owned by the department, which a federal judge recently ordered the city to turn over, he said.

The suit alleges that the city looked the other way despite a pattern of excessive force by certain officers; that the police administration under former police chief Michael Newsome actively discouraged truthful use-of-force reporting and failed to implement remedial steps recommended under a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding agreement it made with a citizen coalition that included the NAACP. It also alleges that city “maliciously” filed felony charges against McGill, knowing that he was a parolee and the charges, which were later dropped, would trigger a parole violation and send him back to prison.

Both Strong and Cecala have been implicated in other excessive force suits, most notably one involving the death of Darrin Hanna on Nov 13, 2011, a week after he was taken into custody. Strong, who has served on the force since 2005, one of six arresting officers, was suspended 30 days without pay for falsifying a report on the incident. Cecala was supervising officer during the arrest. “Cecala was supervisor on all these night crew cases,” O’Connor said. “He’s the guy signing off on his own use-of-force form.”

The Hanna case sparked a four-month long investigation by the Illinois State Police Integrity Unit, followed by a finding of “reasonable force” by the Lake County State’s Attorney Office. An autopsy found that Taser use and physical restraint contributed to the death.