A former Chicago police officer has been sentenced to probation for sexually abusing a man who was in police custody and was shackled to a hospital bed.
Carlyle Calhoun was a 10-year veteran of the police department when he was charged in March 2018 with aggravated criminal sex abuse and official misconduct.
He was found guilty of those charges, as well as aggravated battery, custodial sexual misconduct and unauthorized video recording, at the end of a bench trial in September before Judge Mary Brosnahan.
During his sentencing hearing Friday, the judge suggested Calhoun had contributed to a loss of public trust in police with his actions, which she called “one bad choice after another after another.”
But Brosnahan also acknowledged that the former officer had lost his job and his reputation as a result.
“This has rightfully been a life-changing event for you,” she said. “You now stand as a convicted felon and will be forever.”
Brosnahan sentenced him to three years of probation with 90 days of home confinement. She told Calhoun that he would be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Calhoun had been assigned to guard a suspect at St. Bernard Hospital after the man had threatened to harm himself and was awaiting psychiatric evaluation.
As the man was shackled to a hospital bed, Calhoun sucked on the man’s toes as the victim asked him to stop, grabbed the man’s genitals and took a photo of the victim when he used a portable urinal, prosecutors have said.
Later, Calhoun took the victim, whose feet were shackled, to a bathroom where Calhoun forcibly performed a sex act on the victim, prosecutors said.
The victim told hospital staff and Calhoun’s DNA was found on the man’s body, prosecutors said. The Chicago Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division took Calhoun’s cellphone and found a photo of the victim’s penis.
A spokeswoman for the police department said Calhoun resigned in March 2021.
In court Friday, prosecutors argued Calhoun had “preyed upon an individual in his own custody, someone he knew was vulnerable, someone he knew would be difficult to believe.”
“The defendant’s crimes are a disservice to all law-abiding officers,” an assistant state’s attorney told the judge.
Prosecutors didn’t call any witnesses, and the victim did not appear to attend the hearing Friday.
Calhoun’s friends and family wrote letters and spoke highly of his character. People who had once worked with Calhoun at the former Marshall Field’s store testified to his work ethic and said they found him trustworthy.
In a plea for leniency, Calhoun’s 81-year-old mother, a retired teacher with Chicago Public Schools, said her son had helped her through some difficult health concerns in recent years.
“He could see the bright side when I couldn’t see it,” she said on the stand.
Calhoun gave a brief statement in court before he was sentenced, thanking Brosnahan for overseeing the case.
