Park Ridge Cop Accused Of Beating Teens
PARK RIDGE (WBBM) -- A Park Ridge police lieutenant has been indicted on multiple charges of battery and official misconduct for allegedly beating two teenagers who damaged his personal car four years ago.
WBBM's Mike Krauser reports that 39-year-old Lt. Jason Leavitt is a 16-year veteran of the Park Ridge Police Department.
In 2006, Leavitt was off duty and driving by a cemetery on Touhy when kids shot out the back window of his car with a sling shot.
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Cook County prosecutors say Leavitt caught one of them and beat the teenager unconscious. The beating continued, they say, until a responding officer pulled Leavitt off. Then he hit the handcuffed teen again.
Other officers caught the second suspect. And, according to the indictment, he was on the ground in handcuffs when Leavitt started kicking him in the back of the head.
Prosecutors say the beating continued in the back of a squad car. Both of the teenagers were taken to the Park Ridge police station, but their cases were later dismissed.
One of the suspects was treated for a concussion the day after the incident, prosecutors said.
The case wasn't brought to prosecutors' attention until last year.
