By Natasha Korecki
The Chicago Sun-Times
CICERO, Ill. — A Cicero cop accused of roughing up a driver and another charged with helping to cover it up pleaded guilty Wednesday and promised they’d never again seek careers as police officers.
William Peslak, 36, admitted pulling over a driver and, without being provoked, slamming the driver’s head into the car, requiring the man to get five stitches.
Joseph DeKiel, 38, wasn’t there, but he pretended he was. He testified falsely at the man’s criminal trial to back up Peslak’s story that Peslak was provoked.
On Wednesday, Peslak and DeKiel agreed to pay the man’s hospital bills and attorney fees.
The men were charged last October along with onetime Cicero Deputy Police Supt. James DiSantis. Charges against Peslak and DeKiel were recently downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors, and in exchange they agreed to a series of conditions, including to never pursue law enforcement careers again, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sergio Acosta said.
DiSantis is charged with striking a homeless woman on the head after a traffic stop and squeezing the genitals of a man trying to videotape the 2003 alleged assault. In another incident, DiSantis is accused of becoming violent when a lifeguard denied his family free access to a swimming pool in 2003. DiSantis hit the lifeguard with his badge and threw him into the pool, the feds charge.
DeKiel’s lawyer, Patrick Blegen, and Peslak’s lawyer, Michael Gillespie, said their clients will not testify at DiSantis’ trial. Peslak and DeKiel each face one year in prison.
Cicero fired the three men last year, Cicero spokesman Dan Proft said. The three had contested the terminations, but Wednesday, Peslak and DeKiel agreed to resign.
Copyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times Inc.