Missed Signals By Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

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The accounts of both sides converged only at the end: the death of Dantwan Betts, who was shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Richard Doroniuk.

Before that point, much differed.

The story told in the complaint filed in the Betts family’s lawsuit was a brief one. Early on the morning of April 30, 2006, Doroniuk and two other officers approached Betts’ car near the intersection of 110th Street and Wallace Avenue. They then tried, without either a reason or a search warrant, to arrest Betts, the complaint said.

Almost all fatal police shootings appear to be declared justified.

Doroniuk and his partner, Mahmoud Shamah, drew their weapons, and Doroniuk fired his gun multiple times at Betts. Betts died after suffering "great pain, emotional distress, mental anguish and permanent injury," the complaint said.

After the shooting, though, Monique Bond, director of news affairs for the Chicago Police Department, told a dramatically different story.

In Bond’s version, Betts was a suspect in a carjacking. The officers parked their unmarked car in front of Betts’ car. Doroniuk approached the driver’s side of the car, identified himself as a police officer and asked Betts to step out of the car.

Betts refused. Instead, he backed his car into another officer, Bond said. "The officer [near the driver’s side] feared for his life and his fellow officer’s life," she was quoted as saying in media accounts the day after the shooting.

Every time a police shooting occurs in Chicago, a roundtable meeting consisting of high-ranking police officers is convened shortly after the event to preliminarily assess the circumstances and determine accountability. In the Betts shooting, the roundtable found Doroniuk to have complied with "department guidelines."

In media accounts, Bond also noted that Doroniuk had had no history of disciplinary actions against him.

But he has been the subject of many lawsuits–including six suits for incidents before the Betts shooting.

In 2003, for instance, Doroniuk allegedly pointed his weapon at off-duty police officer Chauncey Moore while Moore’s daughter Essence was in the car. Doroniuk was also accused of lying under oath about Moore’s having identified himself as an officer, according to court documents.

"If I give you advice to snitch and come clean, and the powers-that-be don’t deliver, I look like a sell-out preacher."

In 2005, Doroniuk was accused of illegally entering Corbin Johnson’s home in the Washington Heights neighborhood. According to court documents, Doroniuk cursed and threatened Johnson before falsely stating that Johnson was in possession of narcotics. Charges against Johnson were later dismissed, and the city of Chicago agreed to pay him $46,000 in a settlement.

And, in 2006, Doroniuk was accused by Larry Ballentine of having committed an illegal search of his car and arresting him before filing drug charges that were later dismissed. The city settled for $30,000.

Doroniuk’s extensive record in court is not unique.

The Chicago Reporter examined 84 fatal police shootings since 2000 and identified 17 wrongful death suits filed in federal court using the victims’ names. Though the Chicago Police Department does not disclose the names of officers who shoot civilians, the Reporter found the names of 20 officers who were identified in the lawsuits as a shooter. The Reporter’s investigation into the officers’ previous litigation history found that nine–or 45 percent–of them had been sued previously in either federal or circuit court.

Many people interviewed for this story acknowledged that many officers work under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and that being sued does not constitute a proof of guilt. Still, they wondered if some of the fatal shootings could have been prevented had the police department paid closer attention to the legal action taken against its officers, suggesting that an officer being the subject of multiple lawsuits should be a signal to the department to investigate his or her behavior.

"There are 13,000 officers in the Chicago Police Department, and the proportion who violate rights in proportion to those who generate a lawsuit is very small," said Jon Loevy, founding attorney at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy. "Getting sued, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that could put the city on notice that extra scrutiny is merited."

And others say that police behavior will escalate if it is not scrutinized.

"There’s a progression," said Howard Saffold, a former Chicago police officer who now serves as chief executive officer of Positive Anti-Crime Thrust, the educational branch of the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, an organization dedicated to improving police service to the black community. "If you don’t check the disrespect at verbal, the next thing is physical contact, [and on it goes.]"