Chicago detective, retired prosecutor under investigation for possible overtime abuse, sources say

A Chicago police officer has been placed on desk duty as investigators look into accusations of overtime abuse at the main Cook County courthouse at 26th and California, according to law enforcement sources.

The 33-year-old detective, who joined the Chicago Police Department in 2012, has been reassigned to the alternate response section, a unit that handles non-emergency calls, the sources said.

In 2019, the detective made about $161,000 — more pay than 95% of his Chicago police colleagues, according to a Better Government Association database. A detective with a decade of service normally would expect to make about $100,000 in salary.

A retired assistant Cook County state’s attorney also is under investigation, the sources said.

The state’s attorney’s office and police department’s internal affairs bureau are investigating, according to the sources, but no criminal charges have been filed.

The sources said the probe is tied to a system in which prosecutors notify officers to go to court, for which they get overtime pay.

Former City Hall Inspector General Joseph Ferguson had a name for one of the ways officers have cashed in on overtime at the courthouse by getting called by prosecutors to appear in court to testify or deliver evidence. Paper-jumping is “requesting to be included on an arrest report despite having little or no involvement in the arrest” to make extra money by being called to court, Ferguson said in a 2017 audit of police overtime.