According to the lawsuit, the girl’s mother contacted Lake Delton police four days after returning to Illinois from a vacation with the Garcia family and told officers that her daughter said Garcia had touched her inappropriately over her swimsuit once while Garcia was taking turns tossing six different children into the water.Īccording to the lawsuit, filed in October, the girl told a slightly different story when interviewed by police with her mother a few days later. Over the next two years, he said, he resisted the urge to investigate his own case and let an attorney guide it through Wisconsin’s legal system. Instead of helping to get justice for people in the community, he was reading and signing off on reports written by other officers stripped of their police powers. Garcia was assigned to work as a supervisor in the 311 callback center after his arrest and continued to receive his $118,000-a-year salary, but it wasn’t the job he loved. His youngest daughter’s elementary school took down a picture of him that was hanging as part of a tribute to parents who were first responders. Acquaintances kept their distance, friends checked in less. He also stopped going to family events because other children would be there, meaning he missed dozens of holidays, graduation parties and birthday celebrations. He quit teaching religious education classes, coaching his daughter’s volleyball team and attending his son’s Boy Scout activities. ![]() His life, he said, changed dramatically after posting bond, which came with standard conditions that prohibited him from being around minors other than his son and three daughters. “There are so many things going through my mind: What am I going to do? Am I going to lose my job? How am I going to pay my bills if I lose my job? Do I really need an attorney?” “I was shaking, I was nervous and my mouth was dry,” he said. Facing two counts of second-degree assault of a child, he could have been sentenced to up to 80 years in prison if convicted. The next morning, he posted bond and immediately drove to Wisconsin to turn himself in. Garcia spent a sleepless night in CPD lockup, wondering what the charges would mean for his family, his career and his reputation in the community. ![]() Garcia initially thought it was a sick joke, until they took his gun, tactical gear and badge away. When he arrived at the station, supervisors told Garcia that Lake Delton police were there with a warrant for his arrest. ![]() As a sergeant of detectives who had never faced serious discipline, Garcia said he initially assumed one of his subordinates had done something that needed his attention. His happiness stood in stark contrast to the confusion and fear he said he felt four years earlier, when his supervisors called him off the street and demanded he return to headquarters immediately. “Even though I was wearing a mask, everyone kept telling me that they could tell I was smiling.” “I couldn’t stop smiling all day,” he said. ![]() The sergeant, who emigrated from Mexico as a small child and grew up in Little Village, told the Tribune that walking into work with his police powers restored was one of the happiest moments in his 25-year career. Following the conclusion of CPD’s internal investigation last month, the department returned his badge and assigned him to a shooting investigations team on the South Side. Garcia was stripped of his police powers and assigned to administrative desk duty after his arrest in October 2016.
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