A federal jury's judgment that a "code of silence" in the Chicago Police Department protects rogue officers will stand, the trial judge ruled Thursday, rejecting the Emanuel administration's attempt to erase the verdict from one of the department's most notorious scandals.
The ruling amounted to a second legal defeat for the city in the case of a drunken off-duty police officer whose video-recorded beating of a female bartender in 2007 went viral on the Internet.
A federal jury ruled last month that the city should pay former bartender Karolina Obrycka $850,000 after finding that fellow officers covered up for Anthony Abbate, who eventually was convicted of a felony and fired. The city then cut a deal with Obrycka, offering to pay her the settlement immediately if she agreed to join in asking the court to vacate the judgment.