Cops get 90 days in jail in beating case
A pair of decorated former police officers who dedicated their careers to putting bad guys in jail are behind bars themselves today, each sentenced to three months in the McHenry County jail for taking part in the vicious beating of a man during an off-duty bar fight.
Ronald N. Pilati and Jerome M. Volstad received the 90-day jail terms, along with 24 months probation, for their convictions stemming from the February 2005 incident in Fox Lake that ended their law enforcement careers.
At the time, Pilati, 36, of Melrose Park, was an active patrol officer for the village of Spring Grove. Volstad, 43, of Cary, had been an officer in Lincolnshire, but had been off the job for several months with a back injury.
In issuing the sentence, Judge Joseph Condon rejected county prosecutors' request that each get a five-year prison stay, ruling it would not be appropriate for someone with the ex-cops' background.
"I am persuaded this is an isolated incident and it's not likely to re-occur," the judge said. "There's no question in my mind that while they participated in this event, they did not instigate this event."
A jury convicted the pair in November of charges that included aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, obstructing justice and mob action for their roles in an altercation outside KC's Cabin just after closing Feb. 20, 2005.
The charges alleged they, along with a third now former police officer, surrounded Wisconsin resident Ryan Hallett in the tavern parking lot after a verbal dispute inside the bar, forced him into handcuffs and then repeatedly punched and kicked him.
The incident left Hallett with a shattered orbital bone behind his eye and permanently impaired vision.
The ex-cops denied any wrongdoing, saying they acted to restrain Hallett only after he pulled a knife on them and took hostage a woman who tried to intervene in the dispute.
Pilati, who lost his job in Spring Grove because of the incident, continued Thursday to defend his actions.
"I didn't do anything to intentionally hurt anybody," he said. "I did everything I was trained to do, and did everything under the law."
However, he admitted that the third officer charged in the incident, ex-Richmond cop Brian Quilici, may have beaten Hallett after he stepped away from the scene.
"I swear to you on my entire family I was not there and I did not see it happen," he said to Hallett's family in the courtroom. "I never meant any harm to Ryan Hallett."
Volstad did not speak on his own behalf during the hearing.
Attorneys for both men say they plan to appeal their convictions.
"This is a good man that stands here before you," Volstad attorney Al Stavros said. "Mr. Volstad is the poster child for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Hallett was not in court, but his family later issued a statement thanking prosecutors for their work and strongly denying the ex-cops' claims he had threatened them with a knife.
"These were just manufactured lies made up in hopes of justifying their inhumane behavior," the statement said. "Nothing can justify the brutality Ryan suffered that day."
Quilici, who also lost his job because of the incident, was found guilty in 2006 of five felony charges stemming from the incident and later sentenced to two years in prison.