Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 2-1

SECTION 2 THURSDAY WEST hree reasons why now is a particularly good time for the City Council to make major changes in how Chicago polices its police: 1. Urgency. The issue of misbehaving officers has been making headlines in various ways all year, from off-duty cops seen on video beating civilians in bars, to hefty settlement payments to brutality victims, to the news just this week that the Special Operations Sectionis plagued by alarmingly high levels of misconduct complaints, almost none of which are ever sustained. 2. A vacancy at the top.

The department is between superintendents, in effect. Philip Cline has announced his retirement and Mayor Richard M. Daley has not named a successor, meaning top brass is unlikely to offer much push-back at new proposals. 3. Police contract negotiations are under way.

The city has just started trying to reach a new deal with the Fraternal Order of Police. The contract has long guaranteed accused officers rights and prerogatives that civilians charged with serious wrongdoing could only dream of. This helps explain why the department sustains only about 1 in every 100 formal complaints, compared to a national, big-city average of 8 in 100. The union will not get much sympathy this year if it tries to hold out, again, for rules that protect the chronically accused. So it may be another generation before we again have a day like Thursday, when the City Council is set to debate and vote on reform of the Office of Professional Standards, the departmental agency that investigates allegations of excessive force.

The current proposal, which came from the Daley administration, is somewhat modest. The highlights: It puts the mayor in charge of OPS, grants OPS investigators subpoena power and puts rules in place to assure that most probes are resolved within six months. a start, but truly bold reform of the agency would include the following four elements: 1. A new name. of Professional is synonymous in the public mind with indolence, credulous favoritism toward police and slaps on the wrist (Only about 1 in 500 complaints results in a suspension of seven days or more, according to a University of Chicago Law School analysis of 2002-04 data).

A network of interested community and legal-aid groups has suggested Office of Police which hits some strong notes but could use some acronym-friendly tweaking. 2. More disciplinary power. The superintendent should not be in charge of suspensions of less than a year. 3.

Sunshine. Though the police union would object strenuously, complaint files should be made public and the entire disciplinary process thrown wide open for inspection, review and even second- guessing. Lists, statistics, written rulings. Anything and everything to give citizens confidence that the department takes complaints seriously, looks for patterns and is otherwise committed to giving bad cops the heave-ho. 4.

An expanded definition of actionable behavior. Activists who are making last-ditch efforts this week to amend the reform proposal are particularly interested in adding certain forms of coercion to the list of offenses investigated. get complaints from witnesses and defendants that officers threaten to drop them off in unfriendly neighborhoods, falsely charge them with a crime or have Illinois Department of Children and Family take their kids said Harold Winston, a supervising attorney at the Cook County public office and a leading member of the reform coalition. The victims include: 1. Those brutalized.

2. Taxpayers who continually fund civil settlements. 3. Law-abiding people who live in communities where distrust of police has become a cancer. 4.

The majority of officers who play by the rules yet suffer from the association with those who All these little lists. One big opportunity on Thursday. Fine time to fix many ills among finest Eric Zorn Mayor Daley defends the troubled unit STORY, PAGE 4 By Andrew L. Wang and Courtney Flynn Tribune staff reporters Until this point, no witness had elicited much reaction from Sara Hutsell. But this young man, the one set to testify for the prosecution Wednesday in the criminal trial against her and her husband, was one she had known since his birth.

As her son Tyler took the stand, her eyes welled with tears and she held a crumpled tissue in her hands. In testimony that wound through murky recollections of a tragic night last October, Jonathan Tyler Hutsell told jurors in the Lake County courthouse that about 20 teenagers were in his Deerfield home that night, that some of them brought beer and rum, and that he saw some of them drinking. The young Hutsell, a 2006 Deerfield High School graduate, also testified that his father, Jeffrey, was in the basement at least once that night. Both points could be critical in the case against the Hut- sells, both 53. Prosecutors argue that the couple knew what was happening in their basement Oct.

13as they sat upstairs watching TV. Hours later, two 18-year-olds who had been at the house, Ross Trace of Riverwoods and Daniel Bell of Bannockburn, would be dead after car slammed into a tree less than a block from the Hut- home. Bell, the driver, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.132, above the 0.08 driving limit. The attorneys contend that Jeffrey Hutsell went to the basement at least three times but see any alcohol and that the couple know the teens were drinking. Prosecutors quizzed four teens Wednesday about what they saw in the basement that night and what Jeffrey Hutsell might have seen.

Christine Donley, 17, said she saw a case worth, 15 to 20 of beer on a bar counter in the basement. She also said at one point she saw Jeffrey Hutsell make his way downstairs. Asked about the reaction to his presence, she said: Son says dad visited party PLEASE SEE HUTSELLS, PAGE5 Mom cries as child testifies at drinking trial By Steve Schmadeke Special to the Tribune Inside the crowded clubhouse at the St. Charles Club, where the sounds of voices drown out the shotgun blasts outside, a group of women sit around a table, passing smiley-face cookies and admiring a diamond-inlayBe- retta. The eight women, some wearing shotgun-shaped belt buckles inscribed with their slogan: With Guns Have More are members of Allied Illinois Markswomen.

the only gun club in the state, according to an Illinois Rifle Association official. Members are CPAs, busi- ness owners, warehouse managers, teachers. They meet once a month, handguns other times, and some hunt on their own. Retired veterinarian and certified pilot Rosemary Lo- Guidice, 52, an original member, recalls that when she started shooting about 20 years ago, women always welcomed at gun clubs and firing ranges. But then, she encountered the same sort of resistance when she started practicing veterinary medicine nearly 30 years ago, she said.

always going to have a curmudgeon who thinks women should be barefoot, pregnant and chained to the said LoGuidice, who wore a pink cap reading, like a girl if you In the early days, she was always careful not to gloat if she out- shot a man, she said. Not that LoGuidice is exactly shy. Others were admiring her diamond-studded Beretta, which she created after inheriting a diamond ring and having the stones rearranged in the shape of the veterinary symbol on the walnut grip. Even though she no longer practices medicine, LoGuidice heads the membership and field services branches of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Aurora resident Rosemary Jendras, 55, the markswomen membership director, said drop open about three pay for one or two guns, a couple boxes of factory ammo and club fees is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper than joining a golf club or loading a car up with skis and driving 200 Tartaro of Women Guns magazine Tribune photos by Terry Harris Rosemary LoGuidice (left) of Bartlett and Laura Andersen of St.

Charles congratulate each other after a round of skeet shooting at the St. Charles Club in Elburn. Their slogan is With Guns Have More New Annies get their guns A group of women is right on target while taking aim and firing on the range Rosemary LoGuidiceejects a shell casing from her shotgun after shooting at the gun club. PLEASE SEE GUNS, PAGE5 By Jo Napolitano Tribune staff reporter A Will County judge on Wednesday dismissed the divorce case between Craig Stebic and his wife, Lisa, a Plainfield mother who has been missing for more than 2 1 2 months. Craig attorney, Dion Davi, said that the divorce could not proceed without Lisa and that the case could prove costly to both parties.

hoped Lisa would return and we could proceed, but that Davi said. Plainfield police last week said Stebic is a of in his disappear- ance.Stebic maintains his innocence. The missing attorney, Glenn Kahn, objected to the motion for dismissal, but Judge Joseph Polito sided with Davi in a hearing that lasted just a few minutes. Kahn said he surprised by request, noting is not much the court can do on the matter without Lisa Melanie Greenberg, cousin and spokeswoman for her family, said she was confused by motion for dismissal. understand exactly what the purpose is of these political she said.

this is really a side issue. The main issue is that had a woman go missing for 10 The last reported sighting of Lisa Stebic, 37, a mother of two, was by her husband at the Stebic divorce case is halted Missing attorney objects to motion for dismissal PLEASE SEE STEBIC, PAGE7 Lisa Stebic By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah Tribune staff reporter The City of Chicago joined the fight Wednesday to stop the BP refinery in Whiting, from dumping significantly more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan. City administrators said they hope to meet with BP officials next week. hired a consultant to review the water permit granted by Indiana regulators that will allow BP, one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes, to dump 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day.

City officials also said they are exploring legal options, on the same day BP opened its refinery to media tours and disputed reports about increased pollution resulting from the new permit. Speaking to reporters Wednesday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Kennedy-King College in Englewood, Mayor Richard Daley said increased pollution from the refinery would work against the long-term efforts to clean up the lake. City to fight BP refinery over pollution waiver Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak Joe Morrison, superintendent of the water treatment plant at the BP refinery in Whiting, watches aeration tanks Wednesday, when BP officials opened the plant to tours. PLEASE SEE BP, PAGE7 TRIBUNE UPDATE Product: CTMETRO PubDate: 07-19-2007 Zone: Edition: HD Page: CMETRO1-1 User: rbishop Time: Color: CMYK.