Judge acquits Chicago cop accused of wrestling teen to ground in Park Ridge on all three counts

A Chicago Police sergeant charged with two counts of official misconduct and one count of aggravated battery for grabbing a Park Ridge 14-year-old and pinning him down on the sidewalk last summer was found not guilty on all three counts Friday by Judge Paul Pavlus in Cook County Circuit Court.

Asked if he had a comment on the ruling as he left the courtroom, Sgt. Michael Vitellaro, who was off-duty during the chain of events in Park Ridge last July 1 that led to the charges, shook his head no.

His attorney James McKay commented, “Justice was done.”

“Sgt. Vitellaro and his family are very thankful that the judge did the right thing,” he said. “Now Sgt. Vitellaro and his family can enjoy some kind of normalcy in their lives.”

The mother of the boy expressed disbelief at the verdict and the family’s attorneys said they plan to pursue a civil lawsuit against Vitellaro.

“My son gets attacked over a piece of property and somehow he’s the one that’s wrong here?” the mother questioned.

During a three-day trial last week, prosecutors from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office contended that Vitellaro went “rogue” and overreacted with rage after his son’s bicycle was stolen and he saw the teen handling it outside of a Starbucks in Park Ridge. McKay argued that the charges against Vitellaro were overblown, calling the case “another Kim Foxx special,” in reference to the Cook County state’s attorney who has been criticized as an overzealous prosecutor of police officers.

Pavlus disagreed with the prosecution’s description of events in his ruling.

“At no time [in video footage] did I see an out-of-control, enraged individual as the state would want me to believe,” he said.

Viral video footage of the events, which circulated on social media, show Vitellaro pressing his knee on the back of the 14-year-old and arguing with onlookers. Vitellaro was relieved of his police powers Aug. 17, the day before the Cook County state’s attorney’s office approved charges against him, and has been on a leave of absence from the department.

As Pavlus delivered the verdict Friday, he said the crux of the case lay in whether Vitellaro had had probable cause at the time to act as he did, and said that after he reviewed the video evidence and testimony from the case he thought Vitellaro had acted reasonably based on the information he had.

Pavlus also said he doubted the veracity of the teenage witnesses’ testimonies.

He also said he saw the teen, who is now 15, appear confused while testifying and look out into the gallery to his father “looking for what he should say” at different points.

Pavlus observed that the boy’s friends who testified during trial all sought to distance themselves from the boy who said he took the bike, and commented he had to take into account that the teen victim’s parents started an online fundraiser to raise money for the family in the wake of the incident.

“I can’t just neglect the fact that there was a GoFundMe page with [the boy’s] face smacked right there in the center,” he said.

Nor could he ignore the fact that the family had retained civil lawyers shortly after the incident took place, he said.

To the teenagers who testified in the trial, Pavlus said “don’t let this define you. I think you were confronted with so much outside distraction … you lost your way,” he said.

Pavlus said the image of Vitellaro with his knee on the boy’s back was “horrible” and that he would have been outraged as a parent had he seen the picture.

But, he said, “a picture serves 1,000 emotions but doesn’t serve 1,000 words.”

“[The picture], in a bubble, could lead someone to think the defendant is guilty of the crimes he has been charged with,” he continued. “That bubble is broken in my courtroom.”

Lawyers for the teen, from the firm of Romanucci & Blandin, said they will soon be contacting Vitellaro regarding a civil suit against him.

“Vitellaro will have to testify in that suit,” attorney Antonio Romanucci added. “He will undergo cross examination and he will undergo continued questioning. Then we’ll see what truth comes out.”

“This fight for justice is not over,” attorney Javier Rodriguez said, adding that he saw the ruling as “a character assassination of a straight A student.”

The boy’s mother said that while the ruling was not what the family had hoped for, “we are within our right to continue to fight in the right way... to stand strong and not be silenced about what happened to our son over a bike.”

Romanucci called the ruling “appalling” and said the judge had made it an indictment of the family as opposed to a ruling on the aggravated battery and official misconduct charges.

Romanucci said Pavlus had “created a narrative” using the GoFundMe page and used the fact, which was discussed during testimony, that the boy had “miraculously” been in possession of stolen property.

The couple said they had not yet spoken to their son but that they planned to tell him that the ruling and the case as a whole would not define him.

“We are going to tell him that we are still very proud of him,” his father said. “Regardless of the outcome that happened today... we are going to continue fighting for him.”

At issue during the contentious trial June 5-7 was whether Vitellaro had probable cause to arrest the teen based on the information he had at the time and whether the boy and his friends, all rising sophomores at Maine South High School, were aware that he was a police officer when he used a maneuver to take the boy down flat on the sidewalk.

Vitellaro used two restraint techniques known as an arm bar and a wrist lock, according to police experts who testified at the trial.

Park Ridge police said soon after the incident occurred that the boy Vitellaro is charged with battering did not take his son’s bike. Another teenage witness confirmed during the trial that he had been the one to take the bike, saying he had taken it for a joyride and leaned it against a pillar where the incident unfolded. The boy apologized and expressed regret.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Alyssa Janicki and Thomas Fryska argued that Vitellaro had several less confrontational options available to him when he saw his son’s missing bike at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Northwest Highway.

They also accused Vitellaro of lying or changing his story about what took place, citing the fact that Vitellaro had filled out two police reports the day after the incident took place, and did not check the box that would denote the incident as a takedown in spite of saying as much to investigating Park Ridge police the day before.

McKay accused the boy and his friends of colluding against Vitellaro and of changing their stories on the witness stand, and accused the teen’s mother of trying to make money off of the case.

During closing arguments, McKay said the boy’s mother had “dollar signs in her eyes.”

“I don’t get it. Her son’s not injured in any way, shape or form — where are the money damages?” he said.

McKay has a track record of defending police accused of wrongdoing. He recently represented Chicago Police Lt. Wilfredo Roman, who was charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct after Roman allegedly shoved a flashlight between a teenager’s clothed buttocks during an arrest. In 2019, McKay defended retired Chicago Police Detective David March against allegations that he had falsified reports about the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. In each case, the officers were acquitted.

All three of the charges against Vitellaro were class three felonies under Illinois law and carry a punishment ranging from probation to up to five years in prison.