Ex-cops portrayed as heroes, thugs in Fox Lake beating trial
Differing accounts of a 2005 bar fight alternately portrayed two former police officers as vicious thugs and courageous heroes Wednesday as their trial on charges they brutally beat a handcuffed man outside a Fox Lake tavern got under way in a McHenry County courtroom.
Former Spring Grove police officers Ronald L. Pilati and Jerome Volstad each face aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, mob action and numerous other felony charges stemming from the altercation and allegations they misled and stonewalled Illinois State Police agents investigating the incident.
Prosecutor Nicole Owens said in her opening that Pilati, Volstad and a third former cop already convicted in the case abused their power as police by ganging up on 28-year-old Wisconsin resident Ryan Hallett just after closing Feb. 20, 2005, at KC's Cabin in Fox Lake.
"They hid behind the authority of their police badges to justify their aggression toward a young man who just wanted to go home," said Nichole Owens, criminal division chief for the McHenry County state's attorney. "They hid behind their badges to justify the brutal and vicious beating that Ryan Hallett endured."
After exchanging words with Hallett inside the tavern, Owens said, the former officers surrounded him in the parking lot, knocked him face-first to the ground, put him in handcuffs then beat and kicked him so severely he suffered a fractured bone near his eye, torn eyelid and other facial injuries.
But lawyers for the former officers said Pilati and Volstad sprung into action that early morning only after a "maniacal and out of control" Hallet grabbed bar patron Jessica Thelen around the throat and held a knife against her neck.
Their actions, Pilati attorney Thomas Loizzo said, probably saved Thelen's life.
"There was a dangerous combination of a deadly weapon and intoxication," Loizzo said. "Had it not been for Ron Pilati and Jerome Volstad, we might be here on a homicide case, with Jessica Thelen as the victim."
Pilati, 36, of Spring Grove, had recently gotten off a patrol shift with the Spring Grove Police Department when the fracas occurred. He later was fired from the force because of the incident.
Volstad, 42, of Cary, had not been working as a police officer at the time of the incident because of a back injury, but previously served on both the Spring Grove and Lincolnshire forces.
The defense also called into question Hallet's credibility and motives, noting that less than a month after the incident he filed a federal lawsuit against the former officers and their police departments.
"The civil lawsuit is what Ryan is out to protect," Loizzo said. "He wants to cash that ticket. He has a financial interest in this case."
Hallett, the prosecution's second witness, admitted Wednesday he had a knife during the altercation and showed it to the officers, but only because they were following him to his vehicle as he tried to leave. He denied holding it up against Thelen or anyone else.
"It was my intention to threaten them to keep them away from me," he said. "They put me in a difficult situation."
The third officer charged in the incident, former Richmond cop Brian Quilici, 35, was convicted last year on five felony charges and later sentenced to two years in prison. He too lost his job as a police officer because of the incident.
After more than two hours of testimony Wednesday, Hallett is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning for what is expected to be a lengthy cross-examination.