Bolingbrook Cop Roughed Up Wrongly Detained Resident: Federal Lawsuit

BOLINGBROOK, IL — A Bolingbrook cop roughed up a young man after stopping him for no reason as he walked along a residential street, according to claims in a federal lawsuit filed against the officer and the village.

Jose Almarez, 21, was subjected to “excessive force and unreasonable force” by Bolingbrook Police Officer Thomas McAuliffe, the lawsuit said.

Almarez was walking near the corner of Blackhawk Lane and Whitewater Drive when McAuliffe “stopped (him) for no reason and put him in custody,” the suit said.

Almarez was charged with misdemeanor resisting a peace officer but was found not guilty by a Will County judge before his attorney even had to make her case.

Almarez spent a month and a half in the Will County jail. He made bond after his lawyer was able to get it reduced from $7,500 to $3,000.

Earlier this year, an officer with the Illinois Department of Corrections sued five Bolingbrook cops and the village, accusing them of racism and alleging that they repeatedly arrested him on false charges and called his bosses at Stateville prison numerous times in hopes of getting him fired. Correctional Officer Henry Godfrey also filed his lawsuit in federal court.

Last month, a Bolingbrook family claimed the cops illegally searched their home after breaking up a Christmas morning fight, then erased a cell phone video of their allegedly illicit doings. The matriarch of the family, 48-year-old Rosa Espinoza, along with her two daughters — Erika, 21, and Natalie, 14 — sued seven Bolingbrook police officers in federal court.

In Will County court, a local man recently accused Bolingbrook police officers of breaking a vertebrae in his neck while falsely arresting him in December 2013.

Julio Guzman was 18 when Bolingbrook police officers allegedly broke his neck while taking him into custody on a felony charge of aggravated battery and misdemeanor resisting police.

Prosecutors decided to charge Guzman only with misdemeanor battery. He was acquitted of the charge at a September trial.

Both Bolingbrook’s public safety director, Tom Ross, who oversees the police department, and the town’s mayor, Roger Claar, failed to return calls about the lawsuits.