Escalante cuts deal for detective suspended in Koschman scandal

Two months ago, then-interim Chicago police Supt. John Escalante handed down a one-year suspension to a detective involved in the botched investigation that cleared former Mayor Richard M. Daley's nephew in David Koschman's death.

But Escalante later signed off on a deal that will allow the detective, Nicholas Spanos, to shave as much as 10 months from that suspension, according to a city inspector general's report released Monday.

Spanos "has exercised an 'options' discipline approved by" Escalante, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson wrote under which the detective "will be taking two calendar months of the suspension as unpaid leave and forfeiting accrued paid leave time ... to, in essence, buy back the remaining 10 months of the one-year suspension."

Ferguson said in the report he recommended that Escalante fire Spanos, but, instead, Spanos will be back on the job "shortly."

Escalante is now new police Supt. Eddie Johnson's first deputy, the second highest-ranking position in the department.

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