The former head of the Chicago Police Detective Bureau spent more than four hours on the witness stand Monday in a detective’s whistleblower lawsuit over the 2017 shooting of an unarmed teenager.
Former Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples testified that she ordered Sgt. Isaac Lambert transferred out of the detective bureau for botching the investigation of an off-duty officer’s shooting of 18-year-old Ricardo Hayes.
Lambert has sued the department and the city, claiming he was “dumped” into the patrol division after he refused to alter reports to cover for his fellow officer, but Staples said she had Lambert transferred because he had assigned an inexperienced detective to the case and didn’t submit final reports until nearly two years after the shooting.
“She didn’t have any experience. She was a rookie,” Staples said of the detective, her voice choked with emotion.
“I felt like it was a disservice to the victim in this case, and I think it was an embarrassment to CPD and my bureau, and I think [Lambert] had enough experience as a detective to know better.”
Staples was among the last witnesses called in the trial, now entering its third week, at the Daley Center. Closing arguments are set to begin Tuesday.
Lambert, who took the stand two weeks ago, testified he was working overtime to cover the midnight shift for another sergeant on Aug. 13, 2017, when he got an early morning call that CPD Sgt. Khalil Muhammad had shot Hayes.
Lambert had started the shift with only five...
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