Chicago police officer sidelined in misconduct probe now charged with lying about gun seizure

Chicago police

A Chicago cop has been charged with providing false information about a gun arrest after he and other Calumet District cops were stripped of their police powers over allegations they recovered weapons without making arrests and then filed bogus paperwork.

Officer Daniel Fair, 34, was charged with felony counts of official misconduct and obstruction of justice by destroying evidence in connection with the Aug. 8, 2020 arrest of Rodney Westerfield in West Pullman.

Fair “knowingly furnished false information” in an arrest report and at a court hearing, according to an indictment filed Wednesday.

In the arrest report, Fair said Westerfield was walking near 118th Street and Stewart Avenue and carrying a satchel when Westerfield shifted the bag from his back to the front of his body as he saw officers approaching.

Fair said he found a Taurus handgun in the bag and his partner found a second handgun, a Ruger, in Westerfield’s pants. The guns were inventoried, records show.

But in his court testimony, Fair gave a different story.

He said he was riding in an unmarked car when he spotted Westerfield and arrested him after a chase. He mentioned that a Ruger Mark III handgun was recovered when it fell from Westerfield’s pants.

In a complaint to COPA, Westerfield alleged he was searched “without reason” while walking to a bus stop. Fair and two other officers claimed there were shots fired in the area and allegedly began reaching into Westerfield’s pockets when he resisted their efforts to search him. Two guns were found, according to the report.

Fair’s arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 18.

A spokesperson for the police department declined to comment. 

Fair’s attorney, Tim Grace, said he looks forward to reviewing prosecutors’ evidence. 

“It appears based upon the filing that the state claims there is an inconsistency in the report written and the testimony given,” Grace said in a written statement. “Is this inconsistency intentional or just sloppy testimony?”

Grace noted that Westerfield pleaded guilty to a felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, indicating he and his attorney “obviously didn’t have a problem with the testimony.” 

Westerfield was sentenced to a year in prison, most of which he served in Cook County Jail awaiting trial. His attorney, Quentin Banks, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Earlier this year, Fair and three other Calumet District officers were placed on a list that effectively bars them from testifying in court while the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates whether they mishandled guns.

Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of COPA, sent a letter to top police officials in March raising concerns about how Fair and his colleagues recovered at least five guns. 

Kersten said body-worn camera footage appeared to show the officers taking guns from people without arresting them, then lying in reports about where the guns came. 

The letter also raised questions about whether the officers snatched guns, drugs and cash without turning in evidence. The officers were relieved of their police powers at Kersten’s request.

The alleged misconduct began on June 15, 2021 when two of the officers made a traffic stop in the 500 block of West 127th Place that was captured on body-worn camera, according to the letter. 

It said the video showed them finding a stack of cash and a backpack with a large amount of marijuana, yet the property wasn’t inventoried and there was no record of arrests.

One of the officers did inventory a Glock .40-caliber handgun that day that was purportedly discovered in the 11600 block of South Peoria Street, though the report listed a case number connected to a theft involving welding tools in another police district.

A police stop on Oct. 5, 2021 led to the COPA investigation of the officers.

They had stopped a woman waiting for a bus in the 12100 block of South Michigan Avenue with her boyfriend and kids. One of the cops grabbed a .380-caliber handgun from her fanny pack, Kersten’s letter said.

“We understand why you have this weapon,” the letter quoted the officer as saying. “We’ll let you go. This never happened.”

Two of the officers later said in a report they found the gun while responding to a ShotSpotter alert in the 100 block of East 127th Street. But surveillance camera footage and GPS records showed “it would be impossible for the officers to have recovered the firearm in the location and manner stated,” according to the letter.

The letter didn’t offer a motive for why the officers would seize a gun and not report where it really came from.