Prosecutor calls for probe of NIU police
Beacon-News Staff November 5, 2012 5:04PM
Don Grady
Updated: November 5, 2012 9:57PM
DeKalb County State’s Attorney Clay Campbell is calling on the Illinois State Police to investigate Northern Illinois University Police Chief Don Grady and the NIU Police Department.
Clay said Monday he made the request after a judge found the police department intentionally withheld information in an investigation against one of its officers.
On Nov. 1, 2011, Officer Andrew Rifkin was charged with criminal sexual assault, a class 1 felony, in the sexual assault of a Northern Illinois University student. The officer was ultimately fired as a result of the investigation.
But, according to Campbell’s office, the information that the NIU Police Department withheld from the state’s attorney’s office “arguably exonerates” Rifkin.
“It is clear to me that there was a purposeful hiding of information by this department,” said Judge Robbin Stuckert.
“In my years on the bench, I have never been faced with such a flagrant Brady Violation, and I have to look at this and think about what the appropriate sanction would be at this time because it is sanctionable.”
Campbell said that the “improper actions of the Northern Illinois University Police Department threaten not only the constitutional rights of this defendant, but also call into question any investigation conducted by this department.”
