Chicago cop, Wood Dale man charged in scam

Chicago police officer charged in alleged insurance scheme

A Chicago police officer was charged in federal court on Thursday for allegedly taking part in an insurance fraud scheme that involved faking the theft of a car and dismantling the vehicle for parts.

Officer Joseph Grillo, a 12-year department veteran, and another man, James P. Athans of Wood Dale, have been charged with one count each of felony mail fraud, the FBI said in a news release.

Two other men, including another officer, were involved in the scheme, the FBI said. Authorities referred to the officer in the complaint as "Co-schemer A" and the other man as "Co-schemer B." Neither of those men, according to the release, has been charged.

The Chicago Police Department issued its own news release, saying that additional charges were expected to be filed and that Grillo, 45, has been relieved of his police powers pending the investigation. The department did not immediately return calls for comment about whether the second officer, "Co-schemer A," has also been relieved of his duties.

The police department's Internal Affairs Division took part in the 16-month probe, as did the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and police said.

The four men took part in the staged theft of a 1996 Volkswagen that belonged to the second officer, according to the FBI. In February of last year, Athans took the vehicle of the second officer from behind a police station on the city's West Side and towed it to a storage lot that the fourth man owned, the FBI said in the release. There, it was dismantled for parts.

The car's owner reported the vehicle stolen from another address a few days later and ultimately collected about $3,900 from his insurance company.

The charges are the result of court-authorized electronic surveillance targeting Athans, the FBI said.

Grillo was arrested Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport after getting off a commercial flight. Athans turned himself in to authorities on Thursday, according to Randall Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.

Both men appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon, where they were formally charged and ordered released from custody on their own recognizance, Samborn said. Grillo's attorney, Barry Sheppard, declined to comment. The two defendants are scheduled to return to court June 30, Samborn said.

If convicted of the mail fraud charges, each man faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, according to the FBI release.

The arrest is the latest embarrassment for the department that has been hit with one troubling allegation after another concerning its officers, the most publicized of which involves an off-duty officer who authorities say beat up a female bartender for refusing to serve him any more drinks.

That incident, captured on videotape and shown around the world, has been followed by allegations that other off-duty officers beat up some businessmen at a Chicago bar.

Just this week, one of two officers accused of conspiring with a narcotics dealer to steal more than $31,000 in what they mistakenly believed was drug money pleaded guilty in federal court.

Little more than a month ago, another officer, whose beating of a handcuffed man in a wheelchair was captured on videotape, was charged in federal court with violating the man's civil rights.

That charge came after Superintendent Jody Weis, whom Mayor Richard Daley hired this year to clean up the department's image, referred the case of the officer, who had already pleaded guilty to state charges and was serving a suspension, to the FBI.