2 Chicago cops in Wrigleyville brawl kept jobs after suspensions

Two Chicago police officers who started a drunken daytime brawl at a Wrigleyville pizza restaurant in 2019 reached settlement agreements with the city that allowed them to keep their jobs after each served a one-year suspension.

In records made public last week, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability disclosed both officers were recommended to be separated from the Chicago Police Department in September 2021. That month, CPD — at the time led by Superintendent David Brown — requested the city’s Law Department bring administrative charges to fire officers Salvador Perez and Moises Diaz.

COPA and CPD found the two officers violated several Police Department rules when they both struck a person in the face without justification, were intoxicated and breached the public peace by instigating a fight.

Perez, COPA said, also grabbed a woman’s throat and threw her several feet onto the pavement. Diaz, on the other hand, was knocked unconscious during the violent fracas and later told investigators that he had no memory of the incident.

Hours after the fight, both officers still had a blood-alcohol concentration that far exceeded the legal limit to drive, COPA found.

Before any administrative charges were filed with the Chicago Police Board, though, the city agreed to let Perez and Diaz each serve a one-year suspension from CPD. A Police Department spokesperson said this week that both men had already served their time.

In response to questions from the Tribune about the settlement agreements, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said in a statement: “In every case, we assess the strength of the evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and the likelihood of prevailing at a Police Board hearing.”

Cook County court records indicate Diaz remains a patrol officer in CPD’s Ogden District (10th); however, Perez is no longer included in the city’s database of active employees. Neither man responded to the Tribune’s request for comment.

According to COPA records, Perez and Diaz attended the Thursday, May 23, 2019, game at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. First pitch was at 1:20 p.m., and the Phillies eventually won 9-7. After the game, the two officers barhopped around Wrigleyville. A bar security guard later told investigators that the two cops “were ‘loud and belligerent’ as they complained about the cost of beer.”

Just after 7 p.m., the two stopped into Dimo’s Pizza at 3463 N. Clark St., and Diaz asked the staff if he could use the employees’ restroom in the back. While urinating, COPA said, Diaz refused to close the bathroom door, despite pleas from Dimo’s staff. Three Dimo’s employees removed Diaz from the restroom and tried to throw him out, but Perez then intervened.

“As the staff repeatedly told both men to leave, Officer Diaz grabbed at one of the employees, and Officer Perez joined in the altercation,” COPA investigators wrote. “The officers pushed, shoved, grabbed, grappled with, and yelled at the staff members.”

Members of the staff corralled both cops into the vestibule leading to Clark Street. Perez then displayed his CPD badge and demanded the pizza he’d ordered. Meanwhile, Diaz threw at least one punch that connected with a civilian, COPA said.

The fight “spilled out onto the street,” and Diaz was soon “rendered unconscious,” but COPA didn’t make clear who struck him. Still images from cellphone video show Diaz lying face up in the street as Perez stood nearby. It was then that Perez physically confronted two bystanders who, apparently, tried to check on Diaz’s condition.

“As Officer Diaz laid motionless in the street, an unknown bystander approached him, appearing to assess the officer’s condition. Officer Perez turned towards the bystander and forcefully shoved him, immediately throwing him several feet down the street,” COPA wrote. “(A woman) then stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street as she looked at Officer Diaz with apparent concern. Officer Perez suddenly turned, lunged at (her) and forcefully grabbed her by the throat, pushing her by the throat several feet down the street.”

In his interview with COPA investigators, Perez “consistently attempted to minimize his culpability by portraying himself and Officer Diaz as the victims in the incident, and the Dimo’s staff members as the sole aggressors,” COPA said.

Before the fight in Wrigleyville, Perez and Diaz were both assigned to CPD’s Ogden District as patrol officers, records show. In the more than six years since, Perez was the subject of 12 additional misconduct complaints, though none were sustained, according to records from the city’s Office of Inspector General.

Chicago’s police discipline apparatus has been largely slowed in the last two years amid a legal fight between the city and the union that represents rank-and-file officers over public access to the most serious cases of alleged police misconduct.

In September, the Fraternal Order of Police appealed a ruling from the Illinois Appellate Court, and the state Supreme Court is expected to issue its own ruling before the end of the year.