Felony drug charges tossed for 3 arrested by jailed Schaumburg cops
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CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
Cook County prosecutors dropped felony drug charges Monday against three people arrested earlier by Schaumburg cops now accused of stealing and reselling illegal drugs.
An additional 12 pending drug cases soon will be dismissed because the three accused officers worked on them, a spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.
"We're doing this as quickly as possible," spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.
But prosecutors still plan to continue with four other drug cases investigated by the now-jailed Schaumburg tactical officers, Simonton said.
Officers Terrance O'Brien, Matthew Hudak and John Cichy were charged in DuPage County earlier this month with skimming marijuana and cocaine seized in arrests, then reselling the drugs through a street dealer.
All three cops face charges that include drug conspiracy, official misconduct and armed violence.
Their arrests tainted at least some of the cases they had worked, prompting the string of dismissals, authorities said.
But the numbers so far are much lower than the 30 to 40 cases authorities earlier estimated could have been tossed because of their arrests.
"So far, they've done the right thing," Cook County Public Defender Abishi Cunningham said of the move by prosecutors. His office represented two of those whose charges were dismissed Monday: Alex Garcia, 18, of Palatine, and Marleny Gutierrez, 20, of Wheeling.
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