Cop admits swapping names of crash victims for bribes

A longtime Chicago Police officer admitted Thursday he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from a man who ran an attorney referral service in exchange for early access to the names of traffic crash victims.

Milot Cadichon, 47, admitted to the bribery scheme in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Robert Dow. The man who paid the bribes, Richard Burton, pleaded guilty in June, records show.

Charges are still pending against a second police officer charged in the scheme, Kevin Tate.

Cadichon, a member of CPD since 1998, had inside access to crash reports and would send the names and contact information of crash victims to Burton several times a month, a prosecutor said Thursday.

In return Burton, who ran the National Attorney Referral Service, would send Cadichon hundreds of dollars multiple times a month, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ankur Srivastava.

Burton would then use the information to solicit clients, Srivastava said.

Cadichon’s plea agreement indicates he took at least $7,350 from Burton between April 2016 and October 2017. In total, though, it says he “accepted not less than $10,000.”

Cadichon’s sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 25. Though he could face a maximum of five years in prison, Srivastava said he faces a more likely sentence of two and a half to three years. Cadichon’s defense attorneys are likely to argue for even less time.

When Cadichon was charged along with Burton and Tate in September 2018, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi announced in a tweet that CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson had stripped Tate and Cadichon of their police powers pending an investigation.

A CPD representative on Thursday said Cadichon is “not an active duty officer.”

“The most important thing that any police officer strives for in their career is earning the trust and confidence of the people they serve,” Johnson said in September 2018. “If proven, the allegations against these two officers are a disgraceful abuse of that trust and the service that I and the 13,000 selfless men and women of the Chicago Police Department have dedicated our lives to.”