FEDERAL COURT | Pleads guilty to civil rights charges -- already convicted in state case
January 22, 2009


BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter

Chicago Police Officer William Cozzi admitted Thursday that he "lost it" and beat a man who was handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair at a Northwest Side hospital.

Cozzi, 51, pleaded guilty in federal court to violating the civil rights of Randle Miles. Cozzi faces six to eight years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Cozzi was called to Norwegian American Hospital on Aug. 2, 2005, to respond to a disturbance.

Miles was combative, Cozzi told the court.

"I made a mistake," he said. "I should not have hit him because he was handcuffed and secured."

Cozzi previously was convicted on a state charge of misdemeanor battery and sentenced to probation for the same incident. The Police Board suspended him without pay for two years.

In 2007, the city paid Miles $125,000 to settle a lawsuit he brought against the Police Department.

On Thursday, Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue called for Judge Blanche Manning to give Cozzi probation when he is sentenced March 26. Donahue said it's unfair that federal charges were brought against him.

"He was already charged, convicted and sentenced in state court. The federal efforts were nothing but a duplication and a waste of the taxpayers' money," Donahue said.

A Police Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Cozzi, who remains suspended without pay, has been working as an unarmed security guard, he told the court. He also disclosed he underwent anger-management therapy in 2007.

Cozzi's lawyer Terence Gillespie told the judge his client was "very nervous and scared" and is looking forward to giving a more detailed explanation of the incident before he is sentenced.

The federal charges were brought against Cozzi in April after newly hired police Supt. Jody Weis -- a former FBI supervisor -- mentioned a hospital security video of the beating to Robert Grant, head of the FBI in Chicago.

Weis became aware of the incident after the Chicago Sun-Times obtained the video and put it on the newspaper's Web site. Prosecutors said the video shows Cozzi hitting Miles about 10 times with a "sap," a small club.

Cozzi filed false reports that Miles attempted to punch him and two other security officers. He lied to investigators that he hit Miles with an open hand. And he falsely charged Miles with resisting arrest.

On the day of the incident, Miles had been stabbed by a young woman. Instead of getting treatment right away, he "downed a bottle of gin," his lawyer Timothy Whiting has said.

But friends urged him to go to the hospital. Once there, he became "agitated" and "somewhat abusive," prompting hospital security to call Cozzi, Whiting said.