A former high-ranking suburban police officer who is now in prison for a sex crime will continue to receive his $84,000 annual pension.
An attorney for the Lake in the Hills police pension board informed board members on Thursday that they have no legal standing to revoke the pension of former deputy police chief Alan Bokowski.
Bokowski was sentenced in February to 4½ years in the penitentiary following his guilty plea to the criminal sexual assault of a child between the ages of 13 and 17.
Bokowski, 61, of Crystal Lake, worked for Lake in the Hills police for 26 years before retiring as a deputy chief in 2006. He was arrested and charged in December 2016.
Pension board attorney Richard Reimer said revoking Bokowski’s $7,000 monthly pension would not be permissible under the state’s forfeiture law.
“My opinion is that, while I don’t condone the behavior of Mr. Bokowski, I don’t believe you can use the felony pension divestiture law in this case,” Reimer told the board.
Board vice president Stan Helgerson said the board wanted to perform “due diligence” in the matter after receiving calls from taxpayers asking that Bokowski’s pension be suspended following his conviction. Among those who called for him to lose the retirement benefit was state Rep. Allen Skillicorn, an East Dundee Republican.
Board members also stressed they did not condone the actions of Bokowski, but took no further action regarding his pension.
In a news release issued this week, Skillicorn said the village should explore “every legal remedy.”
“Public servants who violate the public trust, especially in such an egregious fashion, should lose their pensions,” Skillicorn said. He did not attend the meeting.
Reimer said after the session that state law generally requires the cause of forfeiture to be job-related, based on conduct that occurred on duty or through the use of special training or equipment.
Village officials have said Bokowski was never accused of wrongdoing during his service there.
Bokowski met the victim through a longtime employee of the village with whom he’d become close friends, officials said.
The assault for which Bokowski was convicted took place at his home in Crystal Lake, officials said. He will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence and register as a sex offender upon his release.
Bokowski also recently faced charges of possessing firearms and ammunition without a firearm owner’s identification card and of misdemeanor battery, according to McHenry County court records. Those charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal in the sex assault case.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-met-ex-cop-sex-assault-pension-20180511-story.html