A now-retired Chicago police sergeant pleaded guilty to reduced charges last week in connection with a North Side bar brawl that left two men with serious injuries, court records show.
Eric Elkins, 47, pleaded Thursday to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge, which is similar to probation but somewhat less strict.
He must also complete anger-management courses and 40 hours of labor under a sheriff’s work program. In addition, his certification as a law enforcement officer was revoked, court records show, meaning he will never be able to serve as a police officer in Illinois again.
Under his initial charges of felony aggravated battery, Elkins could have faced up to 30 months of probation, or two to five years in prison.
The brutal attack outside a popular gay club in Andersonville — which left victim John Sherwood with a shattered leg and his partner, Tom Stacha, with a punctured trachea — was detailed in a 2018 Chicago Tribune report that raised questions about why Elkins was allowed to remain with the department despite his long history of alleged misconduct.
A civil lawsuit later filed by Sherwood and Stacha alleged Elkins felt he could act with impunity because of a police “code of silence.”
Judge William Gamboney on Thursday asked prosecutors to explain the plea deal.
“I know there were some significant injuries here,” he said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Angel Essig said Sherwood and Stacha had agreed to resolve the case this way, in part so that they did not have to testify and re-live the trauma.
In addition, Essiq said, the identification of Elkins as the assailant might be uncertain at trial, and so prosecutors “did have some issue of whether or not we would be able to meet our burden (of proof), especially in court here.”
Given the pending civil suit, the victims and their attorney “had interest in the defendant pleading guilty in this matter rather than taking the chance of going to trial,” Essig said.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Elkins’ attorney Ramon Moore said some witnesses, including one of the victims, at first failed to identify Elkins in a photo array after the fight, and that the case was on the brink of trial before working out the deal for a misdemeanor.
“He’s always professed his innocence (since) day one, however when faced with a felony, I think he made a good decision and decided to plead to a misdemeanor,” Moore said.
Elkins’ co-defendant, Giovanni Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct in January and was sentenced to court supervision, records show.
In court Thursday, Essig said the September 2018 beating began as a verbal fight between two groups of men at the @mosphere bar in Andersonville. Sherwood and Stacha were in one group, while Rodriguez and Elkins, who was off-duty, were in the other.
Sherwood confronted Rodriguez’s husband over a lime that had been thrown in their direction, and then the husband fell into Sherwood’s lap, Essig said.
Sherwood pushed the husband away, Essig said, prompting Rodriguez to slap Sherwood in the face. Sherwood yelled at him, and the fight got more physical until bar staff intervened and kicked both groups of men out of the club, she said.
Out on the sidewalk, Elkins and Rodriguez rushed toward Sherwood and began to punch and kick him, Essig said. When Stacha tried to intervene, Elkins punched him in the face and Sherwood punched him in the upper body, Essig said.
In an interview with the Tribune in 2018, Sherwood said Elkins came out of the bar in “an absolute rage,” breaking past the bouncer trying to contain the crowd at the door. Within seconds, he said, he felt his leg snap and he crumpled to the sidewalk as blows continued to rain down on his head.
The two men added the city as a defendant in their lawsuit alleging that Elkins felt emboldened by the police “code of silence” and cops slow-walked the investigation into the beating. Elkins was not criminally charged until nearly eight months after the attack, despite having been identified right away by at least one witness.
However, the allegations against the city could be in jeopardy after a recent federal appeals court ruling that said the city could not be held responsible for the actions of off-duty police officers. The suit also names Elkins and his partner as defendants, as well as the bar.
Elkins’ attorneys have characterized him as a model officer, citing his many awards and accolades.
But the recent charges were just the latest in a history of criminal cases connected to his alleged off-duty actions.
As a patrolman in 2003, he was charged with sexually abusing a male student while moonlighting as a security guard at a North Side high school, records show. He was acquitted in a bench trial by a Cook County judge who said there were too many holes in the victim’s testimony. Elkins remained on the force and was promoted to sergeant in 2007.
A few years ago, Elkins was charged in Michigan with sexually abusing a teen at a family party a year earlier, records show. He pleaded guilty in August 2016 to misdemeanor charges, including battery and disorderly conduct, in exchange for a year of probation and a $1,200 fine.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
Tribune’s Jason Meisner contributed.
Former Chicago police sergeant pleads guilty to misdemeanor battery charges in 2018 off-duty bar brawl
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