connie trujillo complaint

8/7/2019 Connie Trujillo Complaint

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Our Cover StoryOur testing over the past 30 years demonstrates that complaints about police officers are often poorly investigatedand resistance to citizens reporting misconduct is high within police subculture. Many citizens are afraid to reportpolice abuse because they have no confidence in their local police departments ability to address misconduct. Whileregular citizens may have difficulties reporting misconduct wives and girlfriends of police officers have found littlesupport from the police or other governmental institutions when complaining about the conduct of a spouse

employed as a law enforcement officer.Spouses and companions of police officers often find themselves in a no mans land when they attempt to reporttheir significant other for abuse. If the matter goes to court as part of a divorce proceeding the officers standing mayhave an impact on the proceedings. Often the complainant spouse finds that the justice system lines up behind theirhusband or wife who is employed as a police officer. Punishments are sometimes tailored to allow the officer tokeep his/her job. When police officers respond to the home of an off-duty cop, investigating officers may go out oftheir way to protect the off-duty officers interests.Our guest this week, Constance Trujillo, is a woman who was married to a police officer for 25 years. She has neverbeen in trouble with the law and until recently lived quietly in Hazel Crest, Illinois. She has a Masters degree inapplied information technology, runs a successful property leasing business and is a committed member of herchurch which she attends at least twice each week. Ms. Trujillo isalso a mother of two beautiful daughters. Until a few years ago she was the wife of senior parole agent RonaldTrujillo.

According to Ms. Trujillo a few years into her marriage her husband became abusive, threatening on more than oneoccasion to cut off her head with a Samurai sword. Ronald Trujillo maintained a collection of swords in his home.When she complained to the local police a police supervisor came to her home and handcuffed her husband. He wasbriefly taken to the police station. Ronald Trujillo was warned that the police did not need for his wife to pressthe charges against him; the police would press the charges against him. After that warning, the abuse brieflysubsided. According to Ms. Trujillo her husband continued to verbally abuse her until he left her home for anotherwoman in 2005. During a contentious divorce proceeding Ms. Trujillo was arrested and charged with assault on twopolice officers. We believe that the charges against Ms. Trujillo are false. The charges appear to be part of a patternof preferential treatment and protections afforded to her husband following their divorce in an effort to intimidateand silence her with threats of a jail sentence.

This weeks radio show highlights the difficulties faced by a woman who lives in a town where the justice

system has failed to give her the due process she deserves. In 2005, Ms. Trujillos ex-husband filed for a contesteddivorce in what was apparently an attempt to obtain a portion of Ms. Trujillos small business; as a result, thedivorce spanned over four years. According to Ms. Trujillo her husband has used his political ties to the legalsystem, courts and local police to advance his cause in the divorce proceedings. The courts have been sympathetic toher husband imposing extraordinary penalties on her for a number of questionable claims.The Judge presiding over the divorce case, the Honorable Timothy P. Murphy, who is divorced and an openlyfather's rights activist, ordered Ms. Trujillo to pay court reporting fees of roughly $8,000 despite knowing herdwindling financial circumstances and without her being present in court. The judge was unsympathetic even whenMs. Trujillo's attorney told him she did not have $8,000, and after questioning why Ronald Trujillo was not orderedto pay anything. As a result of Ms. Trujillos inability to pay court fees, she was held in contempt of court andissued a civil warrant. The judge ordered her to be arrested. Police officers entered Ms. Trujillos home without asearch warrant to arrest her. Ms.Trujillo was not home, she was attending church. The officers waited in the housefor nearly three hours until she returned. As part of the arrest operation, they lured Ms. Trujillo by using herdaughter, who was a minor, as a decoy. When Ms. Trujillo arrived at her home, she saw her daughter standingoutside in the middle of the night. As Ms. Trujillo entered her driveway and exited her vehicle, her daughter haddisappeared back into the house. At that moment, officers ambushed her. The officers alleged that Ms. Trujilloassaulted them and resisted arrest. Ms. Trujillo was forcibly taken into custody and injured during the arrest.Afterward, she was transported to the hospital and then to the cook county jail where she spent the next seven dayslocked up in jail with other suspected criminals charged with various offenses. For a judge to impose seven days injail for a woman whos never been in trouble with the law because she is unable to pay an $8,000 fine seems a bitexcessive.While she was in jail her husband broke into her home. At the time of the break-in her husband was under a standingcourt order not to come near her premises.


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connie trujillo complaint

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