Former CPD Sergeant Eddie Hicks To Go On Trial On Corruption Charges, After 14 Years On The Lam
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A former Chicago police sergeant accused of leading a crew that shook down drug dealers for cash, drugs, and weapons in the 1990s is set to go on trial Monday, after spending 14 years on the run.
Eddie Hicks, 70, originally was supposed to go on trial on federal corruption charges in 2003, but he skipped town. He was arrested in 2017 in Detroit, and brought back to Chicago, where jury selection will begin in his trial on Monday.
Hicks has been charged with extortion, bribery, racketeering, drug conspiracy, theft of government funds and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug conspiracy.
He was an officer from 1970 until 2000, and was assigned to the narcotics section between 1992 and 1997, records show. Federal prosecutors said he and other were caught on tape plotting rip-offs, in which they would steal drugs from dealers, and then sell it to others.
Hicks' crew also allegedly used counterfeit police badges and stole unmarked cars from the motor pool, sometimes using license plates from out-of-service police vehicles. They would pose as DEA task force officers while pulling people over, and would allegedly forge search warrants to raid homes, apartments and hotel rooms.
Afterward, they would divvy up money at the police station at 51st and Wentworth, which they called the "gym."
The crew allegedly ripped off marijuana that had been stolen earlier from a man who paid $100,000 for its return, and also allegedly restrained the occupant of an Alsip apartment while conducting a raid with a bogus search warrant, claiming they belonged to a DEA task force.
