Aggravated battery trial begins for ex-cop also accused of murder

Content warning: Graphic descriptions of police violence.

It’s shortly before 10 p.m. on August 31st, 2019 in Waukegan, Illinois, and then-Waukegan police officer Dante Salinas is pointing a handgun at a man named Angel Salgado. Then a taser.

Shaky police body cam footage played for a Lake County courthouse on Monday shows Salinas tackling Salgado to the ground on his in-laws’ property and tasing him. As more police officers arrive, they pile on, press their knees into his neck and back, and tase him again. Family members emerge from the house, spread over the grass and look on in horror. Salgado is eventually handcuffed shirtless and put into a police vehicle. 

“The use of force in this case was not just excessive, it was criminal,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Facklam said during the prosecution’s opening remarks. 

Lake County prosecutors argued Monday that Salinas repeatedly punched Salgado in the face during this incident, breaking bones and causing Salgado’s left eye to swell shut for days. Salgado filed a federal civil rights suit against the City of Waukegan in August 2020. The city settled the suit with no admission of wrongdoing for $300,000.

Salinas was indicted on one count of aggravated battery and two counts of official misconduct in August 2022. All are class three felonies. 

If found guilty, the former cop could face a multiple-year sentence.

Over the course of the first trial day, attorneys questioned both Salgado and his wife, and replayed body cam footage from both Salinas and an officer identified in court only as “Officer Lawrence.”

It wasn’t made clear at trial what exactly led to the confrontation between Salinas and Salgado. Salgado claimed on the stand that he had been having a smoke in front of the house when he heard a shout, and saw Salinas’ police vehicle approaching.

Salinas can be seen pointing his gun at Salgado seconds after exiting his vehicle, which Salgado said made him “kinda pissed off.”

In the footage, Salgado can be seen cursing Salinas out, approaching him, falling back, re-approaching Salinas, then falling back from the street toward the fence of his in-laws’ home. The family had been celebrating a baptism that night. 

Salinas follows Salgado to the fence gate, tackling him through it after telling Salgado he is under arrest.

Defense attorneys Joe and Doug Zeit tried to use the shaky nighttime footage of the confrontation to their advantage. They contested there was any point in the videos where it was clear Salinas punched Salgado. They also leaned into Salgado’s admission he had been drinking that night, arguing it explained his attitude and behavior. 

“You back up and go forward, back up and go forward; he didn’t know what you were gonna do,” defense attorney Doug Zeit told Salgado while he was on the stand for cross-examination.

Salgado, however, maintained his attitude toward Salinas and the other police who arrested him responded was only natural. 

“I got tased once, I got tased twice, how do you want me to act?” he responded at one point to Zeit. 

Zeit also asked him why he didn’t seem to comply with Salinas ordering him under arrest near the gate. 

Salgado responded, “I was just standing on the sidewalk…I didn’t feel like I had done anything wrong.” 

Salgado also repeatedly insisted one could indeed see Salinas punching him in the former cop’s body cam footage. County judge George Strickland settled the controversy in court by having Facklam play the whole video and telling Salgado to yell “stop” when Salinas punched him. 

Salgado was able to point out brief instances of a few seconds each where the footage does appear to show Salinas striking him — once when Salinas tackled Salgado through the gate entrance to the in-laws’ property, and once more after he wrestled Salgado to the ground.  

Salgado also maintained Salinas struck him more times than is apparent in the footage. 

Proceedings recessed Monday without the prosecution having rested its case. The trial will likely continue for several days; as a bench trial, Judge Strickland himself, rather than a jury, will render Salinas’ verdict. 

Despite the potentially multi-year sentence Salinas could face if found guilty, the trial which began Monday is the less severe of the cases the former cop is currently involved in. 

He faces an additional three second degree murder charges and an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from his fatal shooting of Black 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette in October 2020. 

In that incident, Salinas shot both Marcellis and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Tafara Williams at a traffic stop. The couple were unarmed, and Salinas did not activate his body-worn camera until after the shooting. He was quickly fired from the department following the killing, and community and family also held sustained protests. 

That a cop is facing prosecution over so many violent offenses drew multiple local activists to the trial Monday.

“When there’s an opportunity to hold a police officer accountable, which is very rare, I’m there,” activist Don Gross said. 

Stinnette’s grandmother, Sherrellis Stinnette, was also in attendance for part of the trial day. 

“It’s an ongoing process with this man. He acted this way, then turned around and shot my grandson,” Stinnette said. “We just want justice to be served for both families…we’re all grieving and suffering.”  

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said Monday that Salinas’ murder trial would not be occurring “in the immediate future.”