A 12-year-old girl got a series of text messages this summer from her mother's boyfriend, Woodstock police Sgt. Charles "Chip" Amati, according to copies of the messages obtained by the Tribune.
One message, punctuated with a text emoticon shaped like a heart, read, "Send me some sexy pictures!"
The girl's mother said she alerted authorities, and Illinois State Police investigators discovered something else — that Amati had used a taxpayer-funded law enforcement database to research his girlfriend's criminal record, a police report shows. Officers who use the database for personal reasons can be charged with official misconduct, a felony, state police said.
But McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi has not charged Amati. After a departmental inquiry, Amati, a 24-year veteran and one of the city's highest-paid employees, was suspended without pay for 30 days, though he can take them one at a time at the department's discretion within a year, police Chief Robert Lowen said.
Authorities have not suggested that Amati's text message broke any law. Experts said a mental health assessment would be key to determining whether the message was an isolated act or part of a larger problem.
The chief said Amati wasn't required to undergo a mental health assessment or counseling. Lowen said he did not think either was necessary.
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