Ex-security guard involved in 2017 death of shoplifting suspect in Chicago pleads to charge of impersonating a cop
Cook County IL December 9 2018
A former security guard and south suburban police officer has been stripped of his law enforcement credentials in Illinois as part of a plea deal, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Adrian Santos III, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to impersonate a peace officer, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office. Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford then entered the order decertifying Santos as a law enforcement officer.
Santos, a former guard with Monterrey Security, was indicted on felony charges of impersonation of a peace officer, court records show. The Tribune wrote about Santos in March after a shoplifting suspect died shortly after being in his custody.
Eric Bell, an attorney for Santos, said the charges stem from statements that Santos made to police. He would not provide further details.
“I think it’s a fair and just resolution. … Hopefully he’ll be able to put this behind him and move on with his life,” Bell said Friday.
In July 2017, a 23-year-old man died after being detained by Santos for shoplifting from a Walmart in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Santos, who had been fired by the Lake County, Ind., sheriff’s office after he was arrested on charges of domestic battery, took Donnell Burns into custody in the store parking lot, records show. Though Santos had not worked as a deputy in two years, he was wearing a vest with the word “Sheriff” on it, according to a police report.
While Burns was on the ground, Santos pressed his knee on Burns’ neck as another security officer held him down, according to video of the encounter taken by witnesses.
Burns, who was high on PCP at the time, later died due to physiologic stress and asphyxia during restraint, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.
Santos also told Chicago police officers who arrived on the scene that he was a deputy with the Lake County sheriff’s office, according to a police report.
Monterrey Security said it was not aware that Santos had been terminated from the sheriff’s office until after Burns’ death. The company said Santos provided documents indicating that he was a police officer.
“Monterrey takes great pride in the exceptional service it provides to all of its clients … but like all security companies, there will occasionally be bad apples,” a company spokeswoman said Friday. “When we find them, we take immediate action to remove them.”
Monterrey fired Santos in December 2017. The next month, Santos joined the Police Department in south suburban Phoenix, according to state law enforcement records. He resigned in March after the Tribune published its story on Burns’ death.
Also on Thursday, Santos was sentenced to 18 months of conditional discharge, according to Simonton. He was also fined $414, court records show.
Since Burns’ death, Walmart has terminated four Chicago-area contracts with Monterrey, according to Tara Aston, a company spokeswoman. She would not provide a reason for the split, saying the company does not discuss the details of its vendor relationships.
Following the Tribune story, Santos’ previous employer in Indiana banned its deputies from working for Monterrey, according to a memo issued by the department March 13.
The Lake County sheriff’s office memo revoked the off-duty employment certifications for 18 deputies listed as working for Monterrey.
“This unfortunate situation is due to circumstances that have surfaced in the investigation of a homicide that occurred at a Wal-Mart store in 2017,” the memo said. “Monterrey Security was in possession of fraudulent Lake County Sheriff’s Department letterhead stating that an ex-officer was in good standing.”
