A Chicago police sergeant was found not guilty Friday of battery and official misconduct charges stemming from an off-duty confrontation he had with a 14-year-old boy last year in suburban Park Ridge after his son’s bicycle was stolen.
Video of the incident went viral last August when Sgt. Michael Vitellaro was seen pinning the boy to the ground with his knee outside a Starbucks coffee shop at 100 S. Northwest Highway.
The boy’s family questioned whether Vitellaro, who is white, had targeted their son, who is of Puerto Rican descent, in the incident and called the officer’s actions “an abuse of power, not just without probable cause but with zero cause.”
Prosecutors previously said Vitellaro had located the bike after his son said it was stolen and then saw the 14-year-old touch it, leading to the confrontation. An investigation later determined that another boy had taken the bike.
Cook County Judge Paul Pavlus conceded that “as a parent I would be outraged” by the image of an adult officer on top of the teenager, but said that after viewing multiple videos of the incident and listening to witness testimony during the bench trial that image didn’t “come close to describing what really happened.”
Pavlus said he didn’t find the testimony of the boy or his friends who witnessed the confrontation credible, noting multiple times in his ruling that he believed the teens had changed their stories and had appeared to have forgotten key details of the incident in their re-telling of it on the stand.
Pavlus said the actions of the group of boys, including a different teenager who appeared to have taken the officer’s son’s bike for a “joy ride” after finding it outside the library, amounted to “boys being boys, kids being kids.”
The judge suggested the teens may have felt pressured to testify a certain way, pointing out that the family of the 14-year-old had secured an attorney to represent him in a possible civil lawsuit and that a GoFundMe account was started to raise $10,000 after the incident.
The state’s attorney’s office, the judge said, had not proven their case. While prosecutors had tried to portray Vitellaro as “out of control,” the judge said he saw no evidence of that. In addition, a key expert witness for the state on police use of force had not seen the full videos or produced a written report for the court, the judge said.
“You’re free,” Pavlus told Vitellaro in announcing his verdict. “I hope you can put this behind you.”
The officer’s defense attorney, James McKay, praised the judge for “doing the right thing,” and said Vitellaro and his family were “very happy, very grateful to the judge.”
Attorney Antonio Romanucci said it was “appalling” to listen to the judge’s ruling and said the teen’s family will continue with a planned civil lawsuit against the officer.
Vitellaro “had no right, no legal right to do what he did to their child,” Romanucci said while pointing to parents Angel and Nicole Nieves.
“My son gets attacked over a piece of property? My son gets attacked over a piece of property and somehow he’s the one who’s wrong here?” Nicole Nieves said while fighting tears.
“We will continue to fight,” she added.
Vitellaro was relieved of his police powers days after the incident and police have not announced any updates to an investigation into his actions.
A spokeswoman for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said the findings of their investigation were sent to the Chicago police superintendent in March.
