Calumet Park cop’s brutality trial starts

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Updated: January 15, 2012 8:22AM

Helpless with his arms handcuffed behind his back, Cameron Foreman was knocked down face first for no reason by Calumet Park police officer Lynell Porch, Foreman testified Tuesday.

Porch, 40, is on trial on charges of felony aggravated battery, filing a false police report and official misconduct in the June 16, 2010, incident in the village.

Now a senior at Shepard High School in Palos Heights, Foreman and two of his friends testified against Porch during the first day of his bench trial at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building in Chicago.

Prosecutors said Porch, a Calumet Park officer since 2007, falsified police reports in saying that Foreman obstructed justice and resisted arrest by pulling away from him.

He also falsely claimed that Foreman, then 16, suffered a cut cheek in falling after breaking loose from Porch during a struggle, according to prosecutors.

Calumet Park Officer Joe Weisinger told the judge Tuesday that he and Porch responded to a call of possible drug dealing at a car wash at 127th and Laflin streets. When they got there, Weisinger said, he recognized Foreman, whom he knew as a football player at Shepard, and Foreman was with four other teens, three boys and a girl.

Foreman later testified that he “tried to be funny” and told Weisinger that he had sold his last bag of marijuana prior to the officer’s arrival.

Weisinger said he searched Foreman and the other boys and found nothing and also looked around an empty car wash bay for traces of drugs without finding any.

Foreman told the judge that the guardian of one of his friends arrived at the scene, and Porch told her that he was the “new gang, crimes and narcotics officer in town.” When Foreman made a sarcastic remark about that, Porch became angry and handcuffed him, Foreman said.

Weisinger testified that he saw Porch leading Foreman and pushing up his arms, causing Foreman to tilt forward, and Porch then knocked the teen’s feet out from under him, sending him to the concrete face first.

“I was in shock, I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Weisinger said. “He didn’t tell me he was making an arrest.”

At the police station, Porch pulled Foreman out by his neck with his two hands, Weisinger told the judge.

Porch is confined to desk duty with “no contact with citizens,” according to a letter from the village.

The trial is scheduled to resume Jan. 26.