Chicago Police Liable for Waitress Assult Coverup

By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
Courthouse News Service
Mar. 01, 2012

Flashback:
> Cops threaten reporters with arrest, ticket cars, for covering trial of cop who viciously attacked female bar tender
> Cop Who Brutally Beat Female Bartender Receives Probation CHICAGO (CN) - A waitress viciously beaten by a Chicago cop on camera convinced a federal judge to uphold her claim that the police department orchestrated a coverup.

Anthony Abbate Jr., an off-duty Chicago police officer, brutally attacked Karolina Obrycka in 2007, while she was bartending at Jesse's Shortstop Inn.

After Abbate drank heavily all night, repeatedly flexed his biceps and yelled "Chicago Police Department," Obrycka refused to serve Abbate more alcohol. Abbate then went behind the bar and began punching and kicking her, allegedly telling Obrycka that "nobody tells me what to do."

Video cameras in the bar caught the entire altercation.

Police who responded to Obrycka's 911 call wrote up a police report that omitted several facts, including the existence of the tape or the fact that Abbate was a cop.

Obrycka said Abbate later tried to intimidate her into giving him the videotape, implying that, otherwise, there would be problems for the bar and its employees. He allegedly said that there would be no case against him without the tape.

Gary Ortiz, a city employee and friend of Abbate's, went to the bar and offered to pay Obrycka's medical bills if she did not press charges. "The city concedes that Ortiz's action was an attempted 'bribe,'" the judgment said.

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