Naperville man's claim: 200 traffic stops in 35 years
Naperville police are investigating a formal complaint by a liquor store owner with a history of confrontations with the city who claims he has been treated unfairly with 200 traffic stops during the past 35 years.
Basim Esmail, 63, owner of Extra Value Liquors, said the most recent stop prompted him to file the complaint. He says police abused their discretion when an officer gave him a ticket for a burned-out headlight about 1 a.m. on a Sunday in March in downtown Naperville.
Esmail, who sued the city in 1993 over a rejected liquor license application, says this recent ticket is just one example of a “conspiracy to relentlessly harass me.”
“Every police officer in town knows who I am, and every police officer in town knows the vehicle I drive, and it's like they're always on my tail,” he said. “I think it's an orchestrated effort to harass me.”
Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said police are “absolutely not” targeting Esmail. The chief disputes the number of traffic stops claimed by Esmail but acknowledges it would be almost impossible to determine a precise count.
Still, Marshall says police are taking Esmail's most recent complaint seriously. An internal investigation has begun into the conduct of the two officers, Jeremy Womack and Scott Donofrio, involved in the March 22 traffic stop.
“The next step is for our department to conduct a thorough and fair investigation,” Marshall said.
Video captured by Womack's in-car camera system shows Womack initially told Esmail the headlight was not “a big deal” when he stopped Esmail's yellow 2003 Hummer on Washington Street just south of Aurora Avenue. But then Donofrio pulls up and has a brief conversation with Womack, part of which occurs with both officers' microphones turned off.
After Donofrio asks, “Do you know who that is?”, the audio of Womack's recording cuts out for nearly 10 seconds. Then Womack spends several minutes in his squad car before approaching Esmail's window again and issuing him a ticket.
Marshall said police department policy calls for officers' microphones to remain on during all traffic stops. If the investigation determines the audio deliberately was shut off, it could be a concern, he said.
Investigators will check the audio and video recording equipment to see if it was working during the stop or if it may have malfunctioned, Marshall said. The investigation also will include interviews with any witnesses and the officers involved to determine if department policy was followed.
Womack and Donofrio are not allowed to comment while the investigation is ongoing, per department policy, Sgt. Bill Davis said.
Vince Clark, president of the union that represents police officers, declined to comment on the investigation.
After the March 22 ticket, Esmail shared his concerns that he was being targeted at city council meetings on April 21 and May 5, when he was encouraged to file an official complaint.
Esmail says he fixed the headlight March 23 and took the case to court.
On Tuesday, though, city prosecutors decided not to prosecute the case, spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said.
Well before the March ticket, Esmail said, police were treating him unfairly.
His skirmishes started in 1993 with the city, which denied his request for a liquor license for one of his stores. He sued the city and later ran 129 “Napergate” ads in a local newspaper until about 2004. The ads decried the city's rejection of his license application but also took political stances and otherwise criticized city government.
Esmail eventually got his liquor licenses, but a federal judge threw out his civil rights suit in 1995.
Even though controversy died down, Esmail says police continue to pull him over.
But Marshall disputes the notion that Esmail has been pulled more than 200 times, though he acknowledges police statistical software hasn't been available for all of the past 35 years; counting all the traffic stops for Esmail would be nearly impossible.
But since 2004, police records show Esmail has been stopped 13 times, Marshall said. During those stops, Esmail was ticketed seven times, warned in writing five times and given one “no police action taken,” which Marshall said likely means a verbal warning.
DuPage County court records show Esmail has received 25 traffic citations since 1985, with at least six of them coming from communities other than Naperville.
But Esmail's complaint is aimed specifically at Naperville police. He said another concern is that officers subjectively use discretion to write tickets for some minor offenses while giving other people warnings for the same violations.
“In my opinion, the people that are given tickets are being harassed and treated differently,” Esmail said.
Officers are trained to analyze factors such as a person's past driving record when deciding whether to give a ticket or a warning, Marshall said.
“Our enforcement in the city of Naperville is behavior-driven,” Marshall said. “If there is a violation, we need to have probable cause to make a stop. The probable cause was he was operating his vehicle without a headlight on.”
Womack, the first officer who made the stop, can be heard in the video telling Esmail that he detected “a couple” of similar light-related infractions, which was the reason he decided to write a ticket, rather than let the driver off with a warning.
Esmail filed the one-page complaint May 6, and Marshall said the investigation will be complete within 30 days from then. If investigators determine officers did not follow department policy, Marshall can make a recommendation for discipline, which the officers can accept or ask to be reviewed by the five residents on the city's board of fire and police commissioners.
Both officers are “very accomplished,” Marshall said. Womack has been with the department since 2012 and was given the Lifesaving Award earlier this year for helping revive a teen who was overdosing on heroin. Donofrio has been with the department since 1998 and was recognized in 2013 for exemplary performance in DUI enforcement.
The officers remain assigned to their usual duties during the investigation.