A still from the video posted on Facebook by Nicole Nieves, the teen's mother. (Provided)

A Cook County judge found a Chicago Police sergeant not guilty on Friday on charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct for pinning a 14-year-old boy to a Park Ridge sidewalk with his knee nearly a year ago.

Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Vitellaro was searching for his son’s bicycle, which he believed had been stolen, on the afternoon of July 1. Vitellaro located the bicycle outside a Park Ridge coffeshop, and forced the teen he saw with the bicycle down to the pavement and pinned him there.

After a bench trial, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul Pavlus acquitted Vitellaro on all charges after delivering a nearly 45-minute explanation of his verdict. Pavlus said he did not believe the testimony of the teen and his friends, and said he believed they were subject to intense “outside pressure and influence.”

The incident was captured on video by the teen’s friends, who yelled at Vitellaro to get off their friend and said he hadn’t done anything wrong. His friends eventually pushed the police officer off the teen, and the video of the confrontation ends.

Pavlus ruled that Vitellaro acted reasonably when he grabbed the teen and forced him to the ground because the teen was on Vitellaro’s son stolen bicycle and appeared to be in the process of riding away. However, the teen testified he was simply moving the stolen bicycle to make way for his own bicycle, which he had with him.

The teen appeared “confused” on the stand and appeared to look for help from his father in the gallery about “what story he should tell,” Pavlus ruled.

The teen’s credibility was also hurt by his family’s decision to set up an online fundraiser, with a goal of raising $10,000, and their decision to immediately retain a lawyer with a long track record of suing the city of Chicago for police misconduct, Pavlus ruled.

“I can’t turn a blind eye to that,” Pavlus said.

The teen’s monther, Nicole Nieves, posted a video of the incident involving her son outside the Starbucks on Northwest Highway on Facebook, where it quickly went viral with the help of celebrity news organization TMZ. Nieves wrote that she believed her son was singled out by the off-duty sergeant because he is Puerto Rican.

Pavlus said Vitellaro targeted the teen, who was not injured, only because he was on the stolen bicycle.

Pavlus said that video painted a “horrible picture” that would have outraged him as a father, had it featured his son. But it did not tell the whole story, Pavlus said.

“It serves thousands of emotions but it doesn’t serve thousands of words,” Pavlus said, repeatedly telling the packed courtroom that he had labored over the decision and lost sleep about the case.

The video and images caused the incident to “take on a life of its own,” Pavlus said.

Pavlus also dismissed the testimony of the other teens, saying their stories had changed repeatedly.

During the bench trial, proscectors said Vitellaro overreacted to the theft of his son’s bicycle and went rogue. A friend of the teen who Vitellaro pinned to the sidewalk said he took the bicycle from outside the Park Ridge Public Library for a joyride, leaving it outside the coffeeshop where Vitellaro found it.

Vitellaro was charged with official misconduct for filing an official report that said the teen ended up on the sidewalk after falling while fleeing. The judge also heard evidence from the teen’s friends that Vitellaro did not immediately identify himself as a police officer.

Vitellaro’s attorney said he had probable cause both as an off-duty police officer and as a citizen to detain the teen, and accused Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx of charging him because she is biased against Chicago police officers.

Foxx's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.

A 2017 investigation by the Department of Justice found Chicago Police officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.

A 2021 audit by Chicago’s inspector general found Chicago officers were more likely to use more force against Latino people than White Chicagoans, according to the report.

The Chicago Police Department’s use of force policy requires officers to “avoid sitting, kneeling, or standing on a subject's chest, which may reduce the subject's ability to breathe” and directs officers to “whenever feasible” not to force the subject “to lie on his or her stomach.”

Vitellaro, who was stripped of his police powers after being charged, still faces discipline as a result of the probe of the incident by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which was completed in March.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]