A Chicago police officer is facing felony charges after he allegedly groped a woman and made sexually suggestive comments to her while she was being held in custody last summer at a River North police station.
Stephan Shaw, 32, faces counts of official misconduct and custodial misconduct, according to Cook County court records.
Shaw was arrested Monday evening after turning himself in at the Central District police station and was relieved of his police powers, according to the state’s attorney’s office and police officials.
At a short hearing Tuesday, prosecutors accused Shaw of making sexually suggestive comments and putting his hand into the woman’s shorts, touching her buttocks and genitals, while she was in custody on May 22, 2023, at the Near North District station.
The allegations largely mirrored those made by the woman in a federal lawsuit filed against Shaw and the city of Chicago last summer.
Identified in federal court documents as “Jane Doe,” the woman said Shaw repeatedly touched her “on the outside and inside of her pants while promising he would get her released as long as she ‘cooperated.’”
According to the suit, the woman had been arrested that day at a Nordstrom department store and taken to the police station at 1160 N. Larrabee St.
She was handcuffed in a processing room and “subjected to a barrage of sexually explicit comments and propositions” by Shaw, according to the suit. While in custody, Shaw allegedly repeatedly put his hands down her pants. He also allegedly placed her hand on the outside of his pants, against his genitals, the suit alleges.
The woman contends she was unreasonably searched and that her civil rights were violated by Shaw’s alleged conduct, as well as other allegations. She is seeking unspecified damages from the city of Chicago and a trial by jury.
Prosecutors said the woman told her mother what happened when she was released and filed a complaint with the department the next day.
Shaw’s attorney, Tim Grace, denied the allegations during the hearing Tuesday, saying multiple officers had been in and out of the processing room where the woman was held. He claimed she had not complained to police officers at the station or immediately after her release.
Grace claimed the woman had become combative with officers after she was arrested on a retail theft charge, and that Shaw had talked with her to calm her down, including telling her “it’s not that bad.”
Grace said Shaw grew up in Los Angeles and had been employed by Chicago police since June 2022.
Prosecutors did not file a petition to detain Shaw, though they asked Judge William Fahy to order Shaw to have no contact with the woman and to surrender his license to own a firearm.
Fahy approved the no-contact order but said that proof Shaw had surrendered his firearm to the police department would suffice.
Shaw’s next hearing was set for April 24.
