Crime & Law
Fire CPD Officer Who Kicked Down Girlfriend’s Door, Used Racial Slurs While Drunk: Top Cop
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Former Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling determined an officer who broke down his girlfriend’s door, hurled racial and homophobic slurs at her and then destroyed items throughout her home while drunk should be fired, records show.
While the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended that Officer Jose Rodriguez be suspended for less than 90 days for his conduct, Snelling overruled that recommendation, determining that was not suitable “due to the seriousness of the misconduct.”
“The appropriate penalty should be separation,” Snelling wrote in a letter dated Oct. 30, 2025.
During his three years as Chicago’s top cop, Snelling frequently objected when the agency better known as COPA found officers responsible for violating department policy and recommended significant discipline, records show. Snelling often reduced the length of recommended suspensions significantly, records show.
Rodriguez, who had been a CPD officer for just 18 months at the time of the incident on Feb. 7, 2024, could not be reached for comment by WTTW News.
Rodriguez’s former girlfriend is also a Chicago police officer, according to COPA’s probe. In keeping with the agency’s rules, she was not named in the report, which was obtained Friday by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The fracas that could lead to Rodriguez’s termination began with a birthday celebration for his then-girlfriend, whom he had been dating for 12 years, records show. During the day, Rodriguez consumed several alcoholic drinks before returning to the home owned by his former girlfriend, where he went into the basement, Rodriguez’s former girlfriend told investigators.
An hour later, Rodriguez vomited, but was still inebriated, the woman told investigators. Rodriguez told her he wanted to leave, but his former girlfriend hid his car keys and wallet because she did not want him to drive under the influence of alcohol, according to the probe.
Rodriguez left the house but refused to wait for a ride-hailing service or his brother to pick him up. When he realized that he could not operate his car, he became enraged, his former girlfriend told investigators.
When she refused to let him back into her house and told him to leave via an intercom, Rodriguez pounded on the front door and began kicking it, even as his then-girlfriend told him to stop, records show. Rodriguez then went to the back door and started kicking it, while using anti-Black and homophobic slurs that were captured on a recording made by a doorbell camera the woman had installed, records show.
Rodriguez succeeded in breaking down the door and entered the home, went to a bedroom and fell asleep, his former girlfriend told investigators.
When Rodriguez’s brother arrived, he woke him up and attempted to help him leave the home, enraging him, records show.
Rodriguez knocked glass objects off a dresser, flipped over a coffee table and tore the door off his then-girlfriend’s microwave, records show.
The woman called 911, asking for help removing Rodriguez from her home, records show.
That prompted Rodriguez to threaten her, telling her “If I’m going down, you’re going down with me,” records show.
Rodriguez left her home with his brother when two officers arrived, according to the probe. Both officers were reprimanded for turning off their body-worn cameras during the incident, in violation of CPD policy, records show.
When Rodriguez was interviewed by COPA investigators one year after the incident, he said he had not been drunk but instead suffered a panic attack that made him lose memory of the incident, records show.
Rodriguez denied knocking glass objects off of his then-girlfriend’s dresser intentionally, telling investigators he “attempted to lie down on a wooden dresser in the guest bedroom to try to slow his breathing,” records show.
COPA investigators determined Rodriguez’s “rationale for his behavior was both insufficient and implausible,” records show.
A CPD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about Rodriguez’s current assignment. He was stripped of his badge and gun and assigned to administrative duties in October 2024.
Investigators with COPA concluded Rodriguez “failed to provide a plausible account of the incident,” records show. “Officer Rodriguez’s recollection of the events is refuted by the evidence gathered during this investigation. Moreover, Officer Rodriguez claimed his behavior is attributed to an anxiety attack caused by other medically related symptoms. That said, video evidence clearly demonstrated Officer Rodriguez was intoxicated and actions were not unintentional as he described. At minimum, Officer Rodriguez’s actions show extremely poor judgement, a lack of self-control, significant unprofessionalism and bring discredit upon the department.”
However, Chicago officials will not be able to fire Rodriguez any time soon because of a long-running dispute over whether officers accused of serious misconduct have the right to ask an arbitrator — and not the Chicago Police Board — to decide their fate, and whether those proceedings must take place in public.
The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments about that case last month. A decision could come before the end of the year.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
