Abusive cop named in whistleblower suit convicted of assault

Content warning: domestic abuse, police violence

Editorial note: Detective Marco Torres is accused of abusing and stalking multiple intimate partners, not all of them police officers, over the course of several years. Court records indicate this pattern is ongoing. Every effort has been made to protect his victims’ safety. This includes balancing clarity in reporting with anonymizing language. As a consequence of his recent assault conviction, Torres has been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device with GPS until November 25, 2025. 

A Chicago cop recently found guilty of assault is also the subject of a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Chicago that alleges the police department failed to address his “history of violence and misconduct directed toward female colleagues.”

According to an October 2023 complaint filed by an anonymous Jane Doe, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times last year, Chicago police officer Marco Torres became intimately involved with the complainant, a fellow CPD detective, in 2022. His behavior quickly escalated to multiple instances of “aggravated assault, aggravated battery, stalking, intimidation, and criminal sexual assault,” according to attorneys representing Doe.

Torres was arrested March 14 of this year on domestic battery and assault charges. 

On November 26, he was found guilty of assault. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation on electronic monitoring. He is also forbidden from contacting the victim of the assault, who currently has an active order of protection against him. 

Despite providing the Chief of the Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA), Yolanda Talley, with copies of threatening messages and emails from Torres, the complainant in the 2023 suit alleges BIA never conducted a proper investigation. Instead, she says, the department retaliated against her by pressuring her to give up her position on the homicide team and move to a different unit. 

Two years later, that investigation remains open, and representatives for BIA refuse to respond to questions about the investigation.

Detective Doe initially gave a formal statement to both BIA and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) in 2022. She allowed investigators to photograph injuries resulting from an attack by Torres, providing evidence thought to be sufficient for BIA to pursue criminal charges against her fellow detective. Both accountability agencies have yet to complete their investigations into Torres’ alleged stalking and abuse.

“The City’s actions in protecting Torres, including by refusing to bring criminal charges against him, are part of its long-standing adherence to the Chicago Police Department’s Code of Silence,” the suit alleges. “Jane Doe has been significantly harmed, and continues to be harmed, by the City of Chicago, its police department, and its lawyers who act together to give cover to violent police officers, at the expense of victims, citizens, and taxpayers.”

Court records allege Torres threatened to kill her if she ever left him, detailing his plan to shoot her with her own gun “in order to make her murder look like a suicide.”

On one occasion, according to the complaint filed, these threats were even sent from his official Chicago Police Department email address.

“The City protected and shielded Torres from any consequence,” attorneys claim in the filing. “The City did not remove him from his unit of assignment, did not send him for a fitness for duty evaluation, did not impose any discipline on him, did not bring criminal charges against him, and even allowed him to retain his city issued firearm, notwithstanding his threats to kill Jane Doe.”

The complaint also describes how Detective Doe was pressured to move to a different unit after reporting Torres’ behavior. BIA allegedly “told her not to cite a hostile work environment as the reason, warning her that doing so would upset the department.”

She says she even reported Torres’ behavior to others outside of BIA.

“The Chief of Internal Affairs, the Chief of Constitutional Policing and Reform, and several lawyers from the City of Chicago’s Law Department were all made aware of (and shown) Torres’ threats, but took no action to impose any consequence whatsoever on Torres, or to prevent him from engaging in further harm,” attorneys wrote in the complaint.

Torres was required to surrender his FOID card under the conditions of the Order of Protection against him. According to a police spokesperson, Torres is currently on no-pay status with the department. This is department policy for officers unable to carry a firearm.  

Torres has a complex disciplinary history. He was stripped of his police powers in March, as is policy when an officer is criminally charged. 

But records show Torres had already been relieved of his police powers once before, in July 2023, and it does not appear they were ever re-instated. CPD declined to explain what prompted this—though a week before he was stripped, internal affairs opened an investigation into allegations of neglect of duty. Our attempts to obtain police records detailing that incident were denied. 

It is also unclear if the department has any intent to fire Torres in response to his November 26 conviction.

In a court filing related to the whistleblower suit, another woman who had a relationship with Torres said she too was the victim of abuse and threats. She alleges he offered to pay her for false testimony in court as a witness on his behalf. When she refused, she says he smashed her phone in retaliation and physically attacked her.

Records also show a third woman who recently dated Torres petitioned for an order of protection this year. 

Cook County Judge Anthony Swanagan has yet to rule on a motion by city lawyers attempting to have the Jane Doe case dismissed.

CPD Often Retains Perpetrators of Domestic Violence

The investigations into Torres by COPA and BIA remain open. In domestic violence cases, the two agencies often run parallel investigations. BIA alone wields the authority to bring criminal charges against officers, while COPA investigates whether departmental rules were violated and issues administrative discipline recommendations.

The Superintendent could move to fire Torres at any time. When asked if the department planned to separate him, a CPD spokesperson pointed to the open COPA investigation as a reason not to comment. Historically, officers often have not faced severe discipline for domestic abuse.

In their complaint, attorneys for Jane Doe cite a domestic violence investigation where the Office of the Inspector General recommended the police department fire Officer Tri Tran. Investigators concluded there was ample evidence he threatened to kill his girlfriend and her entire family. Instead, the Superintendent chose a two-month suspension as punishment. 

Tran has since served his suspension, and he is now working as a Community Policing Officer in the 1st District.

Since 2018, the department has moved to terminate only nine officers with sustained domestic violence allegations, according to public records. In total, 66 officers had domestic violence allegations sustained in the same time period.

Of seven other officers COPA has recommended be fired, four resigned before the department took action and three are still awaiting action from the Superintendent. 

Often, these investigations take years to complete.

In another instance, COPA recommended a six-to-twelve month suspension for Enrique Delgado Fernandez, an officer with a history of violence. The agency’s investigation into him abusing and kidnapping an ex-partner took nearly five years to complete. In the end, Superintendent Snelling issued a suspension of six months, and Fernandez continues to work in CPD’s Asset Forfeiture Section.

Setting an example for the department, the president of the police union, John Catanzara, received only a 30-day suspension after stalking a woman, breaking into her home, and violating an order of protection.

Costly Code of Silence

In recent years, CPD’s pattern of retaliation against whistleblowers has cost Chicago taxpayers more than $13 million. If the Detective Doe suit is permitted to proceed, that sum could grow.

In 2012, Officers Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria worked with the FBI to ultimately bring down the cop crew run by the corrupt Sergeant Ronald Watts. For their work, they were reassigned and told other officers wouldn’t have their back on the streets. In 2019, the city settled with the two for $2 million.

Lorenzo Davis, a former cop turned investigator with the Independent Police Review Authority, which predated COPA, was fired in 2015 after he refused to change his findings about a wrongful police shooting. He sued and a jury awarded him $1.1 million in 2021.

Detective supervisor Isaac Lambert was demoted after he refused to alter reports to cover for Sergeant Khalil Muhammed, who shot and wounded an 18-year old with autism. A jury awarded Lambert nearly $1 million in 2022. 

Chicago detective Beth Svec was assigned to conduct follow-up investigations on gun possession arrests in 2015. She uncovered evidence proving two officers lied about a gun arrest. In return, she was told she could no longer investigate gun possession cases, and was reassigned to work the midnight shift in the Englewood district. In July 2022, a jury awarded her more than $4.3 million.

In another case, officer Laura Kubiak was working in CPD’s Office of News Affairs in 2012 when she was assaulted and threatened by fellow officer Veejay Zala. One officer who witnessed the incident later said they thought Zala was going to pull his gun and shoot Kubiak.

During the altercation, Zala shouted, “You are nothing, you are a stupid bitch, you don’t know how to be the police, I am the police, I am the real police.”

Their boss would prove Zala right by later reassigning Kubiak to work the midnight shift in the South Chicago district. A jury awarded Kubiak nearly $2 million in 2019. The case eventually cost taxpayers over $5 million in legal fees and interest.