Saturday, October 10, 2009

Officer George Porter Charged with Stealing from Sick Officer

In an unusual theft case, a veteran Chicago police officer has been charged with stealing $800 -- from another officer who was undergoing treatment for cancer, authorities said Thursday.

Police and prosecutors said Officer George Porter had agreed to buy groceries for the ill co-worker with her bank card but instead made four $200 withdrawals from ATMs over the next three days and pocketed the cash.

Bail was set at $50,000 Thursday for Porter, 46, of Chicago, who was charged with one count of theft and two counts of deceptive practices.

Porter, a 14-year veteran of the force, was stripped of his police powers in June because of an unrelated issue and has been on desk duty ever since, police spokesman Roderick Drew said.

Neither Porter's attorney nor the victim could be reached for comment.

Porter and the victim worked at the city's 311center. They also live near each other, and Porter sometimes gave her rides to work, prosecutors said.

On May 23, the officer didn't feel well and asked Porter to buy groceries for her, prosecutors said. But she didn't have any cash, so she gave Porter her debit card and PIN number and told him to withdraw money from her bank bank's ATM for the groceries, they said.

Instead, he withdrew $200 at from a pharmacy and never bought any groceries, prosecutors alleged. In the meantime, the victim had lost consciousness, authorities said. The next morning, after a call to 911, she was rushed to a hospital still unconscious.

On May 25, while the victim was still hospitalized, Porter made three more unauthorized withdrawals, prosecutors alleged. Two of the withdrawals took place at ATM machines in the Blue Chip Casino in Indiana, they said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For all those who found Officer Porter guilty BEFORE the truth actually came out, you might be interested to know that testimony during trial bore out that the "sick officer" was not "sick" at all. Attorney Leroy Cross successfully defended Officer Porter in this matter and PROVED that no theft had taken place, that the parties were involved in a romantic relationship that incurred the ire of the alleged victim's brother who is a Sergeant with the police department - which was the catalyst for this travesty of justice. At the end of the day, Officer Porter was found not guilty of all charges levied against him. For three years, this Officer's life was held in abeyance by the lies and conspiracy of other officers. Let's see the public crucify the liars the way Officer Porter was crucified.