Call me old fashioned, but if I were Michael Hatch, I might have said something like "First off, I would like to thank the Chicago Police Department for letting my privileged pampered daughters live. Anne has a problem with leg cramps that occasionally cause her to kick out car windows -- quite a problem when we went out of state on vacation -- and I will be happy to pay for any damage that she may have accidently caused. While my daughters are too young to ground, I'll figure something out."
While I am not sure who owns Crobar now, Dennis Rodman owned a piece of it when it first opened.
chicagotribune.com
Use of force in arrest probed
Official's daughters report injuries
By H. Gregory Meyer
Tribune staff reporter
March 29, 2004
The Chicago police Office of Professional Standards is investigating whether excessive force was used in the arrests of two daughters of Minnesota Atty. Gen. Mike Hatch, an official said Sunday.
Hatch's daughters Anne, 21, and Elizabeth, 22, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of battery, resisting arrest and criminal damage to a vehicle Saturday morning outside a Near North Side nightclub, where they were partying late into the night on the younger woman's birthday, police said.
When they were released from Thorek Hospital and Medical Center Saturday, Elizabeth Hatch had a black eye, a sprained wrist and bruises on her back and forearm, her father said from his home in Minnesota. Anne Hatch, a student at DePaul University, suffered abrasions, he said.
The attorney general, a Democrat, questioned whether police were needlessly heavy-handed.
"These are not kids that would fight a police officer," he said.
Lori Lightfoot, chief administrator of the Office of Professional Standards, said the request for an investigation into police conduct was made late Saturday afternoon. She declined to identify the complainant.
Mike Hatch said he had not requested the investigation but supports it. He said he does not plan to sue the city.
"I don't know if they [police] did anything wrong," Hatch said. "Right now I'm having a tough time reconciling the injuries with the arrests, and I have a difficult time reconciling a 10-hour delay before they got treatment."
Hatch said Sunday his elder daughter has returned to Minnesota, where she studies criminal justice at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. His younger daughter, whose birthday was Friday, lives in Chicago, her father said.
"The irony is, the one that was beat up is majoring in criminal justice. She wants to go into law enforcement," he said.
Anne Hatch did not answer the door at her Wrigleyville apartment Sunday and a woman inside said she had nothing to say.
The sisters' mother, Patricia, joined the party along with several DePaul friends at Crobar, 1543 N. Kingsbury St., Mike Hatch said, but departed around 1 a.m.
About 3 a.m. Saturday, a man inside the club tried to grope Elizabeth Hatch, who "mouthed off" at him, her father said.
"She doesn't take to people touching her," the attorney general said.
A security guard threw the two sisters out, but they continued to "make a disturbance" outside, said police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor. Someone flagged down a passing police car.
The women allegedly rebuffed a police command to move along, and as officers tried to arrest Anne Hatch, she allegedly attacked one of them, knocking off his glasses and scratching him under his left eye, Taylor said. Elizabeth Hatch allegedly struggled with another officer, police said. Once in the back of a squad car, an angry Anne Hatch is accused of kicking out a rear window, police said.
Mike Hatch acknowledged that his daughters were intoxicated but said it wasn't clear why police arrested them. An officer knocked Elizabeth Hatch's legs out from under her and held her on the ground with a knee on her back, Mike Hatch said.
As she screamed that he was hurting her wrists, Anne Hatch tried to peel the officer away from her sister, Mike Hatch said.
They were held in a lockup for hours before their release to the hospital, Mike Hatch said.
The Office of Professional Standards investigates complaints of excessive force and police shootings.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune |
