CPD Cop Charged 7 Weeks After Kneeling On Teen At Park Ridge Starbucks

PARK RIDGE, IL — Seven weeks after an off-duty Chicago police sergeant was recorded kneeling on the back of a 14-year-old boy outside a Starbucks, prosecutors approved felony charges and the officer turned himself in to Park Ridge police.

Michael Vitellaro, 49, of Chicago, has been charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct, according to police. He appeared in court for the first time Thursday in Skokie in connection with the two felony charges.

A widely shared video shows Vitellaro pinning the Park Ridge teen on the ground with a knee to his back on July 1 outside the coffee shop at 100 S. Northwest Highway, although it does not show the start of the encounter. In the 45-second cellphone video, the off-duty officer says the boy he is kneeling on was "taking my son's bike."

Prosecutors said video surveillance footage from Starbucks and other businesses in the area show that the bicycle was already at the location before the boy arrived on his own bike.

According to representatives of the boy's family, the teen is a straight-A student who is active in his church's youth ministry and plays three sports. He said he only touched the bicycle in question because it was blocking the sidewalk as he was attempting to maneuver around it with his friends on his own bike.

Vitellaro told authorities that someone told him that his son's bicycle, which had been stolen from the Park Ridge Library, was spotted around the Starbucks, according to the state's attorney's office. He then drove to the coffee shop with his son and spotted the bicycle leaning up against a pillar.

But instead of going and getting his son's bicycle, the veteran of more than two decades with the Chicago Police Department appeared determined to carry out some off-duty detective work. Prosecutors said he and his son sat in his car, staking out the supposedly stolen bike to "hopefully" identify a bike thief.

Viterallo spotted the 14-year-old touch the bicycle while the teen and a group of friends stood on the sidewalk, walked up to him grabbed him by the forearm and pushed him to the ground. He then held the boy's arm in an arm bar and put his knee on his back, holding him face down on the ground.

“I am grateful to our partners at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for their assistance in bringing a resolution to this investigation," Park Ridge Police Frank Kaminsky said in a statement following Vitellaro's arrest.

"I am extremely proud of my staff and their professionalism in conducting a thorough and complete investigation, which they took seriously from day one," Kaminsky said. "The Park Ridge Police Department has and will continue to honor their oath of office, continuing to serve our community with professionalism, dedication, pride, and respect.”

Angel and Nicole Nieves, the parents of the 14-year-old, "extremely relieved and pleased" to see charges filed against the officer, they said Thursday, thanking Park Ridge police and Cook County prosecutors.

“We are still trying to assess the full impact of this traumatic incident on our son, who is only 14 and still processing all that's happened," they said. "There is absolutely no room in our community for this. For any unnecessary aggression toward any children, at all, and we are grateful for today’s progress toward accountability and toward justice.”

After the incident, Vitellaro filed police paperwork describing the incident for which he now faces two felony charges. In an investigative stop report and tactical response report, he described it as an "off-duty arrest" during an investigatory stop and labeled the boy as an "offender" who was resisting arrest, according to prosecutors and the family's attorney.

The Nieveses are being represented by the Chicago-based law firm Romanucci and Blandin. Founding partner Antonio Romanucci has described the incident as a clear-cut case of racial profiling of the only person of color in a group of teenagers by a white off-duty cop.

Romanucci said the surveillance video from area businesses was very valuable in this case.

"Without that video, then we have the word of a 14-year-old child against that of a sergeant in the Chicago police department. I'm actually afraid to think of who would be desired to be more credible here," Romanucci said at a news conference after the charges. I'm scared to think a 14-year-old would be deemed not credible or reliable against the word of a Chicago police sergeant because we know this police sergeant already created a narrative that our client was an offender, resistant and wasn't following direction."

The family's attorney said his firm is preparing to file a civil lawsuit in the case and also called for Vitellaro to be fired. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has opened an investigation into the sergeant's conduct, but there is no word yet on its status, he said.

"These acts of aggression by police officers, who act with utter and total impunity thinking that they have the rights to violate the civil rights of our citizens, just because they have the opportunity to wear a uniform, must stop," Romanucci said.

"Officers do a great job in protecting our citizens, but they must do it within the boundaries of the law," the attorney added. "Whether they're on duty, off-duty, or performing off-duty arrests as this sergeant who should know better — this is a sergeant, somebody who wears a white shirt and has stripes on his sleeve and must be obeyed when he gives a command to his rank-and-file police officers."

Vitellaro, who has spent nearly 22 years as a Chicago police officer, was suspended one day for "operation/personnel violations" in 2006, according to Chicago Police Data Project. He was also accused of a violation of lockup procedures the following year, but there was no affidavit filed and no action taken.

Viterallo was relieved of police powers as of Wednesday, according to a statement from Chicago police.

"We cannot comment further," it said, "as there is an internal investigation."

At his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon in Skokie, Vitellaro was released on his own recognizance ahead his next scheduled appearance Sept. 8.