Politics
CPD Officer Accused of Repeatedly Violating Rights of Black Chicagoans Suspended Again
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
A Chicago police officer repeatedly accused of improperly stopping and searching Black men downtown was again suspended after a ruling by a member of the Chicago Police Board that rejected objections from Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
Officer Richard Rodriguez Jr., who was a member of the Near North (18th) Police District tactical team until he was stripped of his police powers last month, was suspended for at least 30 days after improperly searching a Black man just after 10 p.m. Sept. 25, 2023, by ripping the man’s pants and exposing his underwear, according to documents published Friday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
In all, Rodriguez has been suspended for at least 68 days in connection with seven incidents of misconduct, records show.
The September 2023 incident began when Rodriguez and two other officers assigned to the 18th District tactical team approached three men sitting on the front steps of a business near Chicago and Wabash avenues, questioned them and began to search them, according to the probe completed in January 2025 by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is tasked with investigating misconduct by Chicago police officers.
While Rodriguez searched a man identified in Chicago Police Board documents as Jeremiah Blakenship, the man ran from police, according to the probe completed by the agency better known as COPA.
Rodriguez and Officer Kenneth Sunde chased Blakenship and apprehended him four blocks away, after he threw a firearm while running south on Rush Street, according to the probe.
“When the officers caught up with him, Officer Sunde told (Blakenship) to ‘get on the f---ing ground, dickhead,’” according to the probe.
As Rodriguez searched and handcuffed Blakenship, the officer ripped the man’s pants “between his legs in the crotch area,” according to the probe.
“Officer Rodriguez searched the crotch area under the top layer of clothing, exposing (Blakenship’s) underwear,” according to the probe.
When Blankenship asked Rodriguez why he ripped his pants, Rodriguez said “cause you got something in yo ass,” according to footage captured by Rodriguez’s body-worn camera and reviewed as part of the probe.
Neither Rodriguez nor Sunde responded to a request for comment from WTTW News. Sunde, who earns $111,252 annually, remains assigned to the Near North (18th) Police District, according to a CPD spokesperson.
COPA recommended that Rodriguez be suspended for at least 30 days and no more than 45 days for improperly searching Blankenship and failing to turn on his body-worn camera before questioning Blakenship and the two other men.
COPA also recommended that Sunde be suspended for at least five days and no more than 10 days for using profanity during his interaction with Blakenship, in violation of CPD policy, records show.
However, Snelling objected to COPA’s findings of misconduct by both officers, according to an April 2025 letter sent to COPA leaders.
While agreeing to suspend Rodriguez for one day for failing to turn on his body-worn camera as required by CPD policy, Snelling said his search of Blakenship was not improper.
“Officer Rodriguez did not use any extra effort to rip the pants, as the pants of the arrestee was in very poor condition prior to this as evidenced by the video footage showing the arrestee sitting on the porch at the initiation of the field interview,” Snelling wrote, adding that there was no evidence Rodriguez conducted “any type of strip search.”
In addition, Snelling determined Sunde should face a two-day suspension for violating the department’s policy requiring officers to respect individuals’ human rights, not a longer suspension for violating the CPD policy against racial profiling and bias-based policing, according to his letter.
However, then-Interim COPA Chief Administrator LaKenya White declined to agree with Snelling’s determination, concluding that Rodriguez had conducted a strip search in public, according to a Jan. 13 letter from White to the Chicago Police Board.
Rodriguez admitted to purposefully ripping Blakenship’s pants during the search while being interviewed as part of COPA’s probe, White wrote.
“His pants ripped in the back,” Rodriguez told COPA investigators, according to White’s letter. “Most people like to tuck stuff near their lower extremities. So that’s exactly where I started searching. So he had a hole in the back of his pants. I expanded it, stretched it, ripped his clothes.”
White also said Snelling’s conclusion about Sunde’s conduct was incorrect, but indicated that the agency would not oppose a two-day suspension, according to White’s letter.
That disagreement meant it was up to a randomly chosen member of the Chicago Police Board to determine whether Snelling met “his burden of overcoming” White’s recommendation.
Chicago Police Board Member Justin Terry was randomly chosen to determine what discipline Sunde and Rodriguez should face. Appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in June 2024 to the board, Terry is vice president of real estate for the Chicago Trend Corp.
Terry agreed with Snelling’s findings in regard to Sunde’s actions, imposing the two-day suspension as determined by the superintendent, according to a Feb. 17 ruling.
However, Terry ruled in favor of White’s recommendations in regard to Rodriguez.
“The superintendent’s explanation of Officer Rodriguez’s actions is not persuasive in light of Officer Rodriguez’s statement in response to Mr. Blankenship’s asking why he ripped his jeans and the exposure of his undergarment,” Terry wrote.
That ruling requires Snelling to suspend Rodriguez for at least 30 days and no more than 45 days, records show.
In December, CPD brass agreed to suspend Rodriguez, who earns $115,158 annually, for 20 days after agreeing with COPA investigators that he improperly searched another Black man and his car on Sept. 1, 2024, near Bellevue and Michigan avenues in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.
Rodriguez, who is facing more than two dozen other complaints, is also named in eight pending lawsuits, court records show.
Five other complaints against Rodriguez have been sustained, resulting in suspensions totaling an additional 18 days, records show. One of those complaints involved an improper search of a pedestrian after an investigatory stop, resulting in “substantial prior findings of misconduct,” records show.
Rodriguez was stripped of his police powers in the middle of a court-ordered deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Jovan Streeter and Marquita Beecham, who claimed Rodriguez pulled them over twice without justification between May 2023 and August 2023.
The lawsuit alleges Rodriguez “repeatedly and forcefully banged” Streeter’s face into his car during the first stop and threatened to shoot Beecham during the August 2023 stop. Rodriguez was suspended for three days after the Bureau of Internal Affairs investigated that stop, according to the lawsuit.
Jordan Marsh, the attorney for Streeter and Beecham, called the city’s actions “lawless” and asked U.S. District Court Judge Mary Rowland to punish the city for stopping the deposition of Rodriguez to strip him of his badge.
Court records show that Rodriguez’s deposition was completed, with the city covering the expense of hiring a court reporter and videographer for a second day. Rowland also ordered the city to pay the fees incurred by the plaintiffs because the deposition was interrupted, records show.
“The Court is not inclined to allow any further discovery into this matter,” Rowland wrote.
However, Rowland did allow the plaintiffs to file questions and request documents, under seal, “regarding the decision to strip Rodriguez of his police powers.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers did exactly that, records show.
Rodriguez is the fifth member of the Near North (18th) Police District tactical team to be stripped of his badge and gun after COPA identified a pattern of undocumented and unprofessional traffic stops of Black Chicagoans.
Rodriguez was identified by a database published by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg designed to identify “hot spots” of alleged misconduct as having the most complaints of any other officer beside Officer Joseph Vecchio, another member of the 18th District tactical team.
Vecchio has also been stripped of his police powers.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
