Man body-slammed by CPD cop back in jail on new battery, theft charges

A schizophrenic man body-slammed by a Chicago police officer last year is back in the Cook County Jail after, police say, he shoved a security guard while trying to make off with a bottle of tequila and a bouquet of flowers from a South Loop supermarket.

Bernard Kersh, 29, was arrested Thursday after he walked out of the Jewel at Roosevelt and Wabash with the flowers and a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila, according to police and court records. When a security guard tried to stop him, he allegedly shoved her in the chest.

Officers soon after located Kersh near the Blackstone Hotel at Balbo and Michigan. He was charged with aggravated battery and retail theft. His bail was set at $5,000.

However, Kersh’s bond in a separate case — one that garnered national media attention last year — was revoked after his latest arrest and he remains in the Cook County Jail, records show.

“Bernard Kersh is a diagnosed with schizophrenia, he’s got mental health issues that need to be addressed,” said Andrew M. Stroth, an attorney for Kersh. “The Cook County Jail is not the proper venue for a diagnosed schizophrenic who’s been damaged by the police.”

Chicago Police Department photo

Stroth added that Kersh was in the area to undergo a physical therapy session that he needed for injuries he sustained in last year’s incident, when he was thrown to the ground by the officer.

The flowers, Stroth said, were for the physical therapy staff. Stroth didn’t comment on whom the tequila was for.

On Thanksgiving, officers approached Kersh as he was drinking from a bottle of vodka while sitting at a bus stop at 79th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, police said. Kersh became “irate” and spit in one of the officer’s eyes and mouth. That officer was then seen on cellphone video picking up Kersh and throwing him to the ground.

The officer and another who responded have since been stripped of their police powers as the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates the use of force.

Kersh was later charged with aggravated battery of a peace officer, misdemeanor counts of assault and resisting arrest, as well as a count of drinking alcohol in public.

After those charges were filed, Kersh’s bail was set at $5,000, though he was unable to post the money required for his release from jail because of a hold ordered by the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Records show Kersh pleaded guilty in 2018 to resisting/obstructing a police officer. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, with 133 days credited for time served in the Cook County Jail. He was paroled July 23, 2019. A spokeswoman for the IDOC previously said the hold was ordered because Kersh’s Thanksgiving arrest may have constituted a parole violation.

Local activists, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, were outspoken in their support of Kersh and the IDOC eventually listed the hold and Kersh bonded out from jail on Dec. 6.

“He should be at the hospital, not [in] a jail cell,” Jackson said last year.

Martin Preib, second vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing rank-and-file officers, said Kersh “has proven time and again that he is a threat to public safety and to the police” and called for the officers involved in the body-slamming incident to be reinstated.