ELGIN — A veteran police officer is facing a five-day suspension for violating city policy about making race-based jokes after another veteran police officer facing a suspension of his own brought the alleged comedy to the city’s attention, sources have told The Courier-News.
According to an order of suspension issued July 26, during a trip to Indianapolis in the late 1990s, Sean Rafferty, who is now a lieutenant, “posed for a picture making a joke about the Ku Klux Klan. Such behavior is unacceptable whether on-duty or off-duty.”
In a second instance, the order states that either in late 2009 or early 2010, Rafferty texted Officer Phillip Brown a message and a photo of a photograph asking Brown, “Which one are you?”
Sources said that Rafferty was attending his daughter’s high school basketball game at Glenbard North in Carol Stream, where Brown graduated. The photo was one Rafferty spotted at the school of the baseball squad on which Brown was the only black player.
Multiple sources noted that Brown was on the trip to an Indianapolis Colts football game with Rafferty and quite a few other men about 14 years ago when the Klan picture was snapped. In it, sources said Rafferty and another man are standing by a sign making “K” shapes with their hands. The sign marks the Indianapolis Times winning a 1928 Pulitzer Prize for exposing the KKK.
According to sources, Brown told authorities he came into possession of the photo several years ago after someone anonymously left it at his locker at the police station. Brown allegedly told authorities he recalled Rafferty making a racially inflammatory comment when the photo in Indianapolis was taken.
Sources said that Rafferty told authorities he didn’t recall any of the details behind the photo or even remember the picture being snapped.
According to sources, the above came to light recently as two suspensions Brown has been facing went before an arbitrator in June.
The first suspension, issued about four years ago, initially was supposed to be for five days after it was learned from an FBI wiretap that Brown was associating with a known gang member, sources said. Sources noted Rafferty handled the internal investigation of that matter.
The second suspension involved Brown facing a 10-day suspension for conduct unbecoming a police officer, sources said. The matter stemmed from Brown being charged with a DUI and eluding Bartlett police in an incident that occurred after he attended a wedding reception for a fellow Elgin police officer several years ago, sources said.
Brown was acquitted of the charges, sources said. As a result of the arbitration, Brown faces a two-day suspension of his own, sources said.
Brown also told authorities that another officer made a racial joke about sitting in the back of the bus with the officer in question. That officer has been verbally reprimanded, sources said.
Sources said Rafferty has not faced police discipline before. According to the order, he is set to serve his suspension Monday through Friday.
In a statement released Friday evening, Elgin Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said, “Elgin Lt. Sean Rafferty has been suspended for intolerable behavior. The city of Elgin has express rules prohibiting discriminatory conduct and a zero tolerance policy for any such actions.”
“When discriminatory conduct occurs, the circumstances are thoroughly investigated and discipline is imposed,” Elgin City Manager Sean R. Stegall stated in the same release.
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