Oak Park Police Officer Dwayne Jones, Jr. was put on paid administrative leave on Oct. 18 after being accused of involvement in the beating of two men.
The incident happened on Sept. 29 outside of @mosphere, a gay club on North Clark Street in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. A personal-injury lawsuit has been filed by the victims in the beating – John Sherwood and Tom Stacha.
The lawsuit claims that Jones, along with Chicago Police sergeant Eric Elkins, and Jeffrey and Giovanni Rodriguez attacked the two men after an argument unfolded when limes had been thrown at the victims and they asked the group of friends to stop. When both parties were outside, the victims claim that they were brutally attacked by Elkins, Jones, and Jeffrey and Giovanni Rodriguez.
The lawsuit alleges that Elkins was the one to start the attack, but that the others with him joined in shortly after. The victims both had serious injuries after the attack, the most severe of which being a compound leg fracture for John Sherwood, and broken cheekbones and a perforated trachea for Tom Shacha. The two victims are longtime partners.
Officer Dwayne Jones, Jr. is new to the Oak Park Police Department and still under probationary status. There is no word yet on how that will affect the outcome of the internal investigation being conducted by the police department. Eric Elkins, the Chicago Police sergeant involved in the attack, has had at least 35 citizen complaints filed against him during his time working as an officer.
Elkins has also faced criminal charges on two separate occasions for the alleged sexual assault of teenage boys. After pleading guilty to a lower charge in the most recent of the two cases, Elkins was put on paid desk duty and has been there for more than two years while a disciplinary case against him is pending.
