Anthony Wojcik joined the Chicago Police Department (CPD) on October 13, 1986 as an entry-level police officer and he rose in rank to lieutenant of police in 2008. After 30 years of working for CPD, Lt. Wojcik chose to retire with a full pension on May 15, 2016, (1) in the midst of the investigation into the October 20, 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Wojcik was never charged with a crime, but he left behind a long, and substantiated record of lawlessness.
Lt. Wojcik, often in criminal conspiracy with infamous detectives, Reynaldo Guevara and Ronald Watts (2), is linked to numerous accounts of torture, gang-related frame-ups, and forced confessions. Before retiring, Lt. Wojcik had “accumulated at least 41 citizen complaints,” with 15 of these complaints specifically being cases of physical abuse with abusive interrogation techniques and another 19 cases being complaints of forced entry to a home and search of property without a warrant of permission. (3)
Lieutenant Wojcik’s infliction of indefensible violence on civilians was copiously documented in the cases of Eruby Abrego and Roosevelt Myles. Wojcik hit Abrego in the face, punched him 20-25 times in the ribs, back and chest, starved him for several days, and denied his requests for medical attention. Wojcik hit Myles repeatedly with a flashlight and phone book, pressuring him to confess, slapped him repeatedly. He coerced 3 witnesses to falsely testify and has been under investigation for coercing defendants and witnesses. (4)
Detective Wojcik was not held accountable for his pattern and practice of abuse and misconduct. However, in 2017, the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) published an investigation report on the shooting of Laquan McDonald, where it was determined that Lieutenant Anthony Wojcik made and approved false statements and misleading characterizations in the related CPD reports. These false statements each served a similar purpose: to materially exaggerate the threat posed to Van Dyke by McDonald.
The OIG published an additional 37-page summary report on Wojcik. (5) The report details how “Wojcik improperly disposed of three original general progress reports containing CPD detectives’ handwritten notes of the statements three civilian witnesses made the night of the shooting.” Before disposing of the original reports, Wojcik confirmed he "personally recreated the reports." However, he failed to review the recreated reports for accuracy with the detectives who had taken the statements. He did not even inform those detectives of his recreation of their reports until several months after CPD officially closed its investigation of the shooting. Wojcik also “failed to ensure that the McDonald investigative team documented its loss of three additional original general progress reports, which also contained statements made by the three civilian witnesses.”
Wojcik’s actions ultimately brought discredit upon the department due to impropriety where he, and the investigative team, purposely destroyed evidence that ran counter to its findings, violating CPD Rules and Regulations.
(1) https://cpdp.co/officer/31098/anthony-wojcik/
(2) Johnson, Erick. (2017, December 1). 17 Years. Chicago Crusader. https://chicagocrusader.com/local-news/17-years/
(3) Segura, Melissa. (2017, August 25). This Man Says He Was Framed. He’s Been Waiting 16 Years for His Day in Court. Buzzfeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/melissasegura/sixteen-years-ago-he-was-granted-a-new-hearing-he-is-still
(4) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3955379-Myles-Wojcik-Affidavit.html
(5) Office of the Inspector General. (2017, December 29). Summary Report of Investigation Case #15-0564. https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/6464563-Read-the-summary-report-for-Lieutenant-Wojcik-here