Feds charge CPD cop with attacking South Side arrestee

Twice he’s been caught on camera, allegedly beating arrestees for no good reason.

And twice city taxpayers have forked out to settle lawsuits brought over those beatings.

Now, a federal indictment has dramatically raised the stakes for Chicago cop Aldo Brown.

Charged Wednesday, Brown is accused by federal prosecutors of punching and kicking a victim, then lying about it in a pair of police reports.

The 37-year-old had been a cop for 10 years when he attacked a worker at the Omar Salma convenience store on East 76th Street in 2012, the feds say. He was busted after the entire incident was caught on the store’s security camera on Sept. 27, 2012.

The victim — store worker Jeque Howard, 23 — was initially handcuffed inside the store, but when Brown removed the cuffs, he punched and kicked the victim several times, it’s alleged. A video of the incident obtained at the time by CBS2 Chicago clearly shows the officer hitting Howard in the head, apparently without provocation.

Howard was then re-handcuffed, the federal indictment alleges. He was lying face down on the ground when Brown recovered a handgun from his rear pants pocket, then kicked him repeatedly, it’s alleged.

Brown allegedly later lied in an initial written report that Howard was an “active resister,” who “fled” and “pulled away,” and did not disclose that Brown had punched and kicked Howard.

He then lied again, it’s alleged, in a second arrest report, in which he wrote that he carried out an “emergency take down” of the victim after he noticed the gun when the victim approached him and told him, “I got some weed on me.”

Brown, who was handed a distinguished service award from the Fraternal Order of Police in 2005, is charged with a civil rights violation and two counts of obstruction of justice.

If convicted of all three counts, he faces up to 50 years in prison.

He’s due to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.

A civil lawsuit filed against Brown and the city over the incident in 2012 was settled last year, court records show. The city paid $100,000.

That lawsuit alleged that Brown also pointed the gun he recovered from Howard at Howard, pulled the trigger, then told him, “You’re lucky it wasn’t loaded.” That allegation, however, is not included in the federal indictment.

In another case, also in 2013, the city agreed to pay $37,000 to settle an excessive force case brought against Brown by Randy Dorsey Jr.

Dorsey accused Brown of punching him in the face after Brown and another officer searched Dorsey for marijuana at a Mobil gas station near 76th and Exchange on March 31, 2012.

According to court records, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman issued a $25,000 judgment against the city in the Brown case on Oct. 8, 2013. Two days later, Dorsey’s attorneys asked the judge to vacate the judgment because they entered a settlement with the city for the higher figure, records show.

The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, told a federal judge that the incident was referred to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for possible prosecution in May 2013.

Chicago Police spokesman Martin Maloney said, “We take any complaints or instances of officer misconduct very seriously.

“The officer was stripped of his police powers in September of 2012 and remains on desk duty while court proceedings continue.”

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