In his first public comments since his firing, former Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson denied he intentionally lied to the mayor or public but admitted that he made “a poor decision and had a lapse of judgment” on the late weeknight in October when he was found asleep in his running vehicle at a stop sign.
“That was a mistake and I know that,” Johnson said in a statement issued Tuesday by his attorney. “I have no interest in fighting a battle for my reputation with those that want to question it now.
“I will simply rely on the reputation for integrity that I think I have earned during my long career, with the faith that we should all be judged by the entirety of our lives and not what happened on our worst days.”
On Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired Johnson weeks before his retirement after she said she learned that the city inspector general’s office had uncovered evidence that Johnson had lied about what happened in October.
Lightfoot told reporters she had reviewed the inspector general’s report into Johnson’s conduct as well as videotaped evidence that left her with no choice but to fire Johnson.
The mayor also said that Inspector General Joseph Ferguson told her that his office’s investigation into “others” was still ongoing.
On the day of the incident, Anthony Guglielmi, the department’s chief spokesman, said anyone connected to the incident would be interviewed as part of the investigation.
“They’re going to look at all available evidence just to make sure that this is aboveboard and happened as described,” he said.
Thomas Needham, Johnson’s lawyer, said the inspector general’s office wanted to interview Johnson on the day he announced his retirement last month, but Needham said he declined because he and Johnson needed time to prepare for the interview. Needham said he offered two dates in December.
“As far as what’s going to happen next, I have no idea,” Needham said.
In his statement Tuesday, Johnson denied “intentionally” misleading or deceiving “the mayor or the people of Chicago.”
But Johnson did not elaborate on how that could be true given his public statements in the wake of the incident on Oct. 16-17. He had blamed his falling asleep at the wheel on his failure to take his blood pressure medication, saying he felt ill as he drove home from dinner with friends. He also implied that he was tired from working a long day and that officers had no reason to check if he had been drinking.
In his own seeming concession, he said in hindsight he shouldn’t have let his driver off early that night, making it appear that move was a magnanimous gesture on his part by noting the driver had a young family.
Despite all that, Johnson said he ordered the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs to look into the incident “to avoid an appearance of impropriety and just have total transparency.”
“As I’ve said before, every officer, regardless of rank, must hold themselves to the highest of standards, and that includes me,” he told reporters shortly before a meeting of the Chicago Police Board on the evening of Oct. 17.
But sources have told the Chicago Tribune that the inspector general’s office, which has been investigating the incident, obtained video footage showing Johnson drinking for a few hours on the evening of Oct. 16 with a woman who was not his wife at the Ceres Cafe, a popular restaurant and bar in the Chicago Board of Trade building.
The woman, a Chicago police officer since 2006, had been on Johnson’s security detail, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Later that night, officers responding to a 911 call about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 17 near Johnson’s home in the Bridgeport neighborhood rapped on the SUV’s window, waking Johnson, a source said. Johnson rolled the window down partway and flashed his police identification, the source said. Officers asked if he was able to drive home, the source said, and Johnson pulled away after responding yes.
In his initial remarks on the incident, Johnson said officers responding to the scene had “checked on me and confirmed that I was able to continue on my way.”
That night, Johnson struggled to explain how he had failed to take his blood pressure medication. After reporters asked several follow-up questions, Johnson said he removed old medication from his weekly pillbox after his cardiologist had recently changed his dosage but that he had not yet obtained the new prescription.
“How can I explain it? It’s just your body kind of gives you a warning with the high blood pressure thing that you may pass out, so I pulled over, stopped and I just rested myself until that feeling passed,” said Johnson, who underwent a successful kidney transplant in August 2017.
He did not explain, however, why he was driving home from a dinner engagement at 12:30 a.m., particularly on a day he said he felt fatigued.
Guglielmi issued a statement that same day saying that the officers who responded to the 911 call did not notice “any signs of impairment” on the superintendent’s part and that Johnson drove himself home.
The next day, though, Lightfoot said Johnson had admitted to her that he had “a couple of drinks” that night.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s successor, Charlie Beck, made his first public appearance Tuesday since taking over a day earlier as interim superintendent. He offered support for Johnson, saying that they remained friends “but all of us have to be accountable.”
Despite the disruption of Johnson’s sudden removal, Beck, who had been scheduled to become the interim superintendent Jan. 1 after Johnson’s retirement, vowed “a smooth transition” as he takes on the pivotal law enforcement post before a permanent successor can be chosen in the months ahead.
Beck, who was Los Angeles police chief for about nine years, said he still plans to talk to Johnson, adding, “We have talked.” But he declined to be more specific about their discussions.
“None of us are perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But we have to live with that, and we have to live with our errors,” Beck said in answer to a reporter’s question at an unrelated news conference at police headquarters. “I am still the former superintendent’s friend, but all of us have to be accountable. I know that. He knows that.”
Asked if big changes were ahead for the department’s command staff, Beck said a number of people “in very important positions” will be “retiring.”
Beck said he was still considering “structural changes” to the department but didn’t want to say more because he needed “more feedback” to make sure he was “on the right path.”
“This will not deter the transition,” he said.
Chicago Tribune’s Annie Sweeney contributed.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
