# Illinois Officer Promoted To Chief Despite Brutality Lawsuit



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Story by nbc5.com*

Police officers and alleged brutality are caught on tape and somehow one of the officers ended up getting promoted to police chief. 
Suburban Marengo and Wonder Lake are making headlines this week after a video of alleged police brutality surfaced and one of the officers reportedly on the tape gets promoted to police chief.

Once a Marengo police officer, since-promoted Wonder Lake Police Chief David Mahlke and two other officers are being named in a lawsuit 
In November of 2004, Orest Hedio said he was knocked out by an Illinois State Police special agent. 
"He drops like a wet mop, rendered immediately unconscious," said the plaintiff's lawyer, Albert Wysocki. 
According Wysocki, Hedio is then dragged unconscious in to a holding cell, where he lay for 45 minutes. It would take more than four hours before he received medical attention. 
"All Orest wants to do is recover his dignity," he said. "No matter what your station in life, we do not recognize this type of behavior from our law enforcement officers." 
Wysocki's client has filed an $18 million lawsuit against Mahlke, once a Margengo officer, now chief of police in suburban Wonder Lake. 
Lawyers for Hedio said because of his injury, he now suffers from a seizure disorder. 
Also named in the lawsuit are Illinois State Police Special Agent William Kroncke, ISP Investigator Virgil Schroeder, and the city of Marengo. 
"The state's attorney has said out there they did an investigation and everything is fine, nothing happened," said investigator Paul Ciolino. "Well, watch the videotape or the DVD. The guy gets knocked out, he's in hand cuffs, he's in a police station. He's in a cell. They take him out of the cell and they bring him in to the squad room and they beat him up." 
Lawyers for Hedio said another man, seen scrambling away from officers, was complaining about the conduct of a Marengo cop and they wanted to set an example. 
"And now we have Kroncke and Schroeder beating people up, knocking them out and causing brain damage for no other reason then to protect Scott Crawford, who is no longer a police officer," said Ciolino. 
NBC 5 tried to contact Police Chief Mahlke. He has not called back.

Copyright 2006 by NBC5.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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