A sergeant from a household of Chicago cops has resigned and brought an almost $80,000-a-year metropolis pension whereas beneath inside investigation and the topic of a lawsuit over his ex-girlfriend’s accusation that he goaded her into taking pictures herself within the face along with his service weapon.
Sgt. John R. Schuler stop the Chicago Police Department in February, two days after Theresa Birt Byrne sued him and City Hall over the drunken, off-duty taking pictures final yr at his dwelling on the Northwest Side.
City officers gained’t pay for Schuler’s lawyer within the civil case filed in Cook County circuit court docket. A metropolis regulation division spokesman says that, after “reviewing the lawsuit,” the company “determined that the city is not responsible for the officer’s legal representation.”
But Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for the previous sergeant’s retirement pay. Schuler, 50, just lately started drawing a largely taxpayer-funded police pension of $79,281.
By resigning, Schuler averted the potential for being fired or in any other case disciplined by the police division for failing to safe his weapon or violating different rules.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability — town company that investigates allegations of misconduct by Chicago cops — started investigating the taking pictures as a result of it concerned a police officer’s weapon. The case remained open for greater than a yr. On Thursday, an company spokesman mentioned it has now been positioned on “a closed/hold status in the event the officer seeks to be employed again with the city of Chicago.”
Though COPA can not advocate disciplinary motion, authorities might refer the matter to the Cook County state’s legal professional’s workplace in the event that they consider Schuler dedicated against the law.
Schuler put in his retirement papers on Feb. 27. Though he was on desk responsibility on the time due to the taking pictures, he was nonetheless being paid a yearly wage of greater than $130,000.
Schuler’s legal professional wouldn’t remark.
A lawyer for Byrne says the 50-year-old mom of 4 is “thankful that he’s not on the street working as a police officer and possibly injuring someone else.”
In her lawsuit, Byrne blames a “broken disciplinary system” for repeatedly failing to fireside, in any other case punish or retrain Schuler and says he ought to have been fired years in the past, citing his two convictions for driving drunk and violent incidents together with one wherein he threw a beer bottle at a bartender who wouldn’t serve him. Schuler additionally has had 55 complaints filed with town towards him since 1992.
Byrne’s go well with accused metropolis officers of “encouraging and allowing a code of silence” that protects drawback cops.
Former Chicago police Sgt. John Schuler.Facebook
Her go well with says Schuler has “had several intoxicated and violent incidents with fellow bar patrons, such as throwing a pool cue, making threatening remarks and displaying his service weapon to them, which he typically wore to bars tucked into his waistband.”
The go well with says Schuler “verbally and physically abused Byrne” on Feb. 25, 2018 — that’s the day she has informed investigators she shot herself along with his 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun.
She says Schuler left the gun on the espresso desk in his front room and informed her “words to the effect of ‘you should use this on yourself.’ ”
Byrne informed investigators she pulled the set off, pondering the protection was on.
Her lawsuit says solely that, after Schuler inspired her to make use of the weapon, she “decided to go home and leaned over to put her boots on, and that is the last thing she remembers.”
Schuler’s “service weapon discharged striking Byrne in the chin and taking off a large portion of the left side of her face,” based on the lawsuit.
Byrne has had repeated surgical procedures to reconstruct her face and jaw.
The son of a retired high-ranking Chicago police officer, Schuler and his three siblings all turned Chicago cops, too. His brother…