The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- Two police officers returned to work this week even though then-Chicago police Superintendent Terry Hillard wanted them fired over their response to a woman’s repeated 911 calls the night she was killed.
Officers Donald E. Cornelious and Christopher Green will be retrained at the academy on police duties before returning to the streets, police spokesman Sgt. Edward Alonzo said.
Hillard asked the Chicago Police Board last year to fire Cornelious and Green, who had accepted 15-day suspensions without pay, for what he considered their slow response. The officers appealed, and the case went to an arbitrator.
The arbitrator, Stephen Briggs, found in June that Hillard did not have the authority to pursue the officers’ firing because they had already agreed on the suspensions. Briggs ordered that Cornelious and Green return to work and get one year’s back pay.
Authorities have said Ronyale White repeatedly called 911 the night of May 3, 2002, to say that her husband had violated an order of protection and was in her home. When police arrived nearly 20 minutes later, the 31-year-old mother of three had been shot.
Cornelious and Green were the first two officers dispatched but the last ones to arrive at the scene and had been less than 2 miles away from White’s home.
Cornelious and Green said in internal investigations they were delayed because of mandatory checks of their vehicle and equipment. They said they drove directly to the scene, making no stops along the way after leaving the station.