An off-duty Chicago police officer working security at a South Side school targeted a lesbian student because she was wearing "boy" clothes, then beat her, wrestled her to the ground and kicked out her brother's teeth when he came to her aid, according to a federal lawsuit.
The violent clash happened on Dec. 18, 2013 when Aaliyah Russell-Morgan, then 17, was in the hallway of Community Youth Development Institute, an alternative school she and her brother Brandon Russell attended, according to the lawsuit filed in late January against the school and the city.
Xavier Chism, a Chicago police officer who worked as a security guard there, allegedly was upset that she was slow to go to class and told her "If you're going to act like a boy, I'm going to treat you like a boy," according to the suit.
Then, the suit states, Chism dragged Russell-Morgan outside and wrestled her to the ground, cutting off her air, then got into a fistfight with her brother when he came to help.
"Apparently during the fistfight, Brandon made contact with the officer and somebody called the cops who were on duty, and they came up and they saw the fight going on between the security guard and the student so they grabbed the student, they handcuffed him, and put him on the ground. When he was on the ground the cop whose face was hurt, he came up and kicked Brandon and knocked his teeth out," said the siblings' lawyer, Scott Kamin. "He was just pouring blood."
But Chicago police offer a different story.
An arrest report filed after the siblings were taken into custody states that it was Russell-Morgan and her brother who attacked Chism.
Before the confrontation, the off-duty officer had asked Russell-Morgan to stop holding a door open, at which point she told Chism "I'll kill you and I don't care if you're the police, I'll kick your ass," the police report states. At one point she began hitting Chism, according to police.
Then Russell-Morgan's brother allegedly came up and punched Chism, leaving the officer with cuts to the face and a fractured nose, according to the police report.The report mentions that Russell was wearing a metal ring shaped like a wolf's head with pointed ears during the attack.
The Independent Police Review Authority cleared Chism of wrongdoing in an investigation that closed in July, according to IPRA spokesman Larry Merritt.
Kamin said he is skeptical that Russell-Morgan would threaten Chism in the way the police report says she did. "That seems incredible that she would do that," he said. "It would be even more incredible that he would, from this 5-foot-3 130-pounder, actually consider that a threat."
Russell-Morgan is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds, according to the police report. But Chism was taller than 6 feet and weighs more than 200 pounds, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesman for the police union declined to comment, as did a representative of the school. Attempts to reach Chism were unsuccessful.
The Chicago Police Department confirmed that Chism still is a Chicago police officer, but did not comment further. A spokesman for the city's law department declined to comment on pending litigation.
Russell-Morgan and Russell were charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer, but pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, Kamin said.
The excessive force and discrimination lawsuit does not mention the monetary value of the damages Kamin is seeking, but Kamin mentioned he wants to get enough to pay for Russell's teeth and get him out of the South Side.
"My big concern is punishing the police and school," he said.
Kamin said that Brandon Russell, now 21, is a talented dancer who hopes to move to Los Angeles soon. His sister, now 18, recently graduated from high school, according to Kamin.