Alphecca

Only Cops Should Have Guns...

There's a growing scandal in Chicago, where only the cops are allowed to have guns. So what do you do when they're the criminals?

Cook County prosecutors on Monday charged three more members of an elite Chicago police unit with using their badges and guns to break into homes and shake down residents for money over a two-year period.

There were also additional charges against three of the four officers already implicated in the ongoing investigation of the department's special operations section.

The new charges are against Frank Villareal, 38, who has been with the department since 1994; Margaret Hopkins, 32, a seven-year-veteran; and James McGovern, 40, a sergeant in the Gresham district, said John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Villareal was charged with home invasion, official misconduct and armed violence. Hopkins was charged with home invasion and official misconduct. And James McGovern was charged with official misconduct in one case.

The latest charges occurred four months after Officers Jerome Finnigan, 43, Keith Herrera, 28, Carl Suchocki, 32, and Thomas Sherry, 32, were indicted on charges they broke into homes and businesses between 2002 and 2005. All four had been released after each posted bail of more than $1 million.

Finnigan, Herrera, and Suchocki were also charged with half a dozen new cases. They turned themselves over to police custody Monday, as did Villareal, Hopkins and McGovern.

And, of course, if any of their victims had defended themselves or gone to what few honest cops there are in Chicago, they probably would have . . . disappeared?

Police officials say that hundreds of cases have been compromised and dropped as a result of possibly being tainted by these guys.