FOP Pres. John Catanzara Pleads 'Not Liable' At Hearing Monday

CHICAGO — Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara appeared Monday morning at a hearing to determine if he is allowed to keep his job — before announcing his resignation shortly after it was over. While not a criminal trial, the hearing was structured similarly, overseen by a judge and with the Chicago Police Board serving as jury. A decision is not expected until early next year, and Catanzara says he will likely continue to serve out his term either way.

In May, even as Catanzara faced allegations of filing a false police report and making racist, sexist, homophobic, obscene and inflammatory comments on social media, he was elected to head up the union representing rank-and-file Chicago police officers. Since then, he has drawn attention for encouraging officers to defy Mayor Lori Lightfoot's vaccine mandate, at one point comparing it to the Holocaust. He later apologized.

Late last month, a judge lifted a gag order forbidding Catanzara from making public statements about the vaccine mandate. City officials had accused him of encouraging union members to stage an illegal strike.

In court on Monday, Catanzara was combative, even as he acknowledged the inflammatory statements he had posted to Facebook and other social media accounts.

"This case is about an officer, John Catanzara, who violated the rules of conduct in efforts to bring attention to himself," attorneys for Superintendent David Brown said during opening arguments. "The department has an image to uphold in the community. The trust and confidence of the community members is essential now more than ever."

Brown is seeking to fire Catanzara. His attorneys explained that department rules prohibit officers from using social media in a way that hurts the department's image and reputation in the community, including restrictions on political activity that might seem to be endorsed by the police department.

"On their face, [Catanzara's] Facebook posts clearly reflect poorly on the department," Brown's attorneys said. "Some are horribly disparaging to large groups of people in our community, Muslims and public aid recipients in particular. Some are offensive and contain sexually degrading or homophobic language."

In one post, Cantanzara wrote that Chicago police's "stop and frisk" practice disproportionately targets Black pedestrians because "that's where about the same percent of crime is taking place."

In another he posted a video of a woman being stoned to death and wrote, "Savages they all deserve a bullet. This is the reason MANY Americans are leary (sic) of a large segment of Muslim's especially those who support Sharia law."

After posting an article about the shooting of a Wayne State University police officer, Catanzara wrote, "Wft its seriously time to kill these motherf******."

In other posts he blamed riots on "unemployed social parasites who get free housing, food and health care" or posted in uniform, in front of his police cruiser, with a political sign supporting former President Donald Trump.

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Catanzara is also accused of falsifying a police report accusing former police Superintendent Eddie Johnson of breaking the law when he participated in a peaceful Black Lives Matter march that briefly shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway. Off duty at the time, Catanzara is accused of filing the report — based not on his own investigation but on media reports and an overheard conversation between Illinois state troopers — using another officer's beat number.

In their opening arguments, Catanzara's attorneys called him a "classic whistleblower" and accused the city of "throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks." They also pushed back on his reputation as a "rebel or nonconformist," saying he's the exact opposite.

In the defense's version of events, Catanzara has fought against the "hypocrisy and shortcomings of the Chicago Police Department for his 27-year career as a police officer," but now the city is "trying to silence him through termination."

"Let's not mince words, some of the posts are vulgar," his attorney admitted. "But they were certainly not racist. They were not misogynistic, and they were not homophobic. And evidence will show John was off duty at the times all these posts were made."

"More speech is better speech," his attorneys continued, arguing that Cantazara's posts are protected by the First Amendment. "Either you believe in free speech or you don't. There's no dipping your toe in the shallow end."

Catanzara's attorneys called him a "bright light that his [union] members desperately need."

"Do not extinguish this light," they said, "but put him back to work."

Prosecutors called Catanzara as their first witness. He seldom backed away from even the worst of his statements.

"I was hoping when they catch him, they kill him, because I'm sick and tired of police offers getting killed," Cantazara said of his "Wft" post. "How about you?"

"Move to strike the question to me, your honor," Brown's attorney said before moving on to another question.

In reference to his "social parasites" post, Cantazara claimed statistics prove his point. And, when questioned about Americans being "leary" of Muslims, he invoked "the 19 hijackers who terrorized this country on September 11, 2001," at one point seeming to confuse the Shia sect of Islam with Sharia law.

Brown's attorneys also confronted Cantazara about his report accusing Eddie Johnson of wrongdoing on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

"You used another officer's beat number, correct?"

"I used an incorrect beat number, yes," Cantazara answered after a pause.

"You used another officer's beat number, correct," Brown's attorney repeated.

"I used an incorrect beat number, yes," Cantazara said again.

The closest Catanzara came to an apology or expression of regret came midway through questioning Monday.

"I had opinions when I was John Cantazara, aka average Joe Citizen. Now I am the president of a union," he said. "So, I would not share those same sentiments as the president of the FOP."