Facebook post gets heat from Elgin police
The Elgin Police Department is taking issue with a Facebook post they say misrepresented the injuries suffered by a female cabdriver involved in an altercation.
The post was made by Anthony Pedote, a planning and zoning commissioner in Elgin, who said police mishandled their response to Wednesday morning's altercation between the cabdriver and an SUV driver.
He posted on the Facebook page "What's Happening in Elgin IL?" which has more than 3,360 members, on Thursday offering $300 for information about the incident. He posted the same on his own private page.
The posts, which have since been deleted, included a photo of a person with a head injury with stitches.
However, the photo was not of the cabdriver, but a random photo off the Internet, Pedote said, adding he was acting as a private citizen, not as a commissioner.
The 34-year-old cabdriver and the 59-year-old driver of an SUV got into the altercation shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday on the 600 block of Sherman Avenue, according to the police report.
The cab was stopped in the middle of the street because a landscaping truck was blocking its path. The driver behind her started honking when the truck drove off but the cab didn't move. Then the SUV driver got out and approached the cab.
That's where the two accounts differ, with each driver saying the other was the aggressor. No witnesses could be found at the scene to corroborate either side, police said.
No one's been charged in the altercation, but the investigation is ongoing, Elgin Police Cmdr. Glenn Theriault said.
Pedote says he has no tolerance for violence against women, and believes the cabdriver. "I know her. I've had the opportunity to be a customer," he said.
The cabdriver, who had swelling under her hairline, refused medical treatment at the scene, police said. The other driver's glasses were broken.
The cabdriver later went to the hospital, where she was treated and released the same day, Pedote said.
Pedote said he eventually added a comment to his Facebook post clarifying the photo was not of the cabdriver.
"The picture was merely to say, 'Hey, this grabs your attention.' It wasn't to sensationalize it," he said.
Police responded with a post on its own Facebook page Friday saying that the information posted by Pedote - whom police didn't name - was false.
"He admitted he intentionally misled the Facebook community to create a dramatic effect to the exaggerated claims he was making pertaining to the incident," police stated on Facebook. "This serves as an excellent reminder that you can't believe everything you read on the Internet."
Pedote said it wasn't his intention to be misleading.
"I expressed the facts as best as I had knowledge of them," he said. "They want to make this about the photo because it detracts from the issue."
Theriault said police wanted to set the record straight.
"EPD investigates all cases fairly and impartially, and takes the appropriate action when necessary."
Pedote said he also went to the site of the altercation on Thursday morning and handed out fliers in English and Spanish seeking witnesses.