Man Pays Price for Being Good Samaritan

[wally246]

Linked from - Madville.com - Man pays the price for being a good samaritan

Man pays the price for being a good samaritan

August 30, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter/spatterson@suntimes.com

It was Rocio Palacios who first noticed the woman who appeared to need help.

It was 8 a.m. when she and her husband, Erasmo, dropped their 6-year-old daughter off at school and had picked up their 22-year-old daughter to go out for breakfast when they saw the woman waving her arms at 53rd and Kedzie last November.
» Click to enlarge image
"I'm so lucky I was with my wife," Erasmo Palacios (seen with wife Rocio) said of his arrest on prostitution charges.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)



The couple laughed, realizing this wasn't a woman in distress after all.

But within seconds, Chicago Police swarmed the family car, hauling Erasmo Palacios out in handcuffs. He was charged with solicitation of a prostitute

His daughter, who had just run in to exchange her coffee for a hot chocolate, screamed, while his wife cried in fear.

Eight hours later, Palacios, who has no criminal record, was released from custody. And weeks later, charges against him were dropped.

Now, Erasmo Palacios is suing the city and the officers involved in his arrest, saying they violated his civil rights during an incident he described as both frightening and ridiculous.

"I'm so lucky I was with my wife -- imagine if I had to try to tell her and she wasn't with me," he said, before laughing at the image. "She'd never believe me. Never."

A Chicago Police report offers few details, saying only that it was Erasmo Palacios who asked for sex, never mentioning his wife in the car or his daughter nearby.

Attorneys Lonny Ben Ogus and Joe Cavanaugh also want to know what happened to the family's 1983 Mercedes. It was impounded that November day and, Palacios said, his wife and daughter were even threatened with arrest as they tried to stop police from taking it, as they were left stranded that morning.

The city wants more than $4,700 in towing and storage fees if he wants the car back.

City officials declined to comment on the status of the family's car and the Palacios case, while the undercover female officer involved in the arrest couldn't be reached.

[chris]

wish I could read that police report,

I think I will do a FOIA request now for it.

[chris]

ok, just because I was curious, I sent out an FOIA request just now, lets see if they anser lol..

[wally246]

Originally Posted by chris

ok, just because I was curious, I sent out an FOIA request just now, lets see if they anser lol..

That should be interesting.

[mainetc]

indeed, I'd like to see that also.

[kellyhound]

Don't they have better things to do instead of trying to trap civilians into something so they can send them to jail ?

[Worrymon]

Originally Posted by kellyhound

Don't they have better things to do instead of trying to trap civilians into something so they can send them to jail ?

[Saarcasm] It's easier to trap innocent people than to go out and try to find the real criminals. [/Sarcasm]