Ex-Waukegan cop guilty of official misconduct, cleared on aggravated battery charge

Following a three-day bench trial on aggravated battery and official misconduct charges, a Lake County judge on Friday returned a mixed ruling against a fired Waukegan police officer separately facing murder accusations over the 2020 killing of an unarmed Black teen. 

The courtroom was strangely silent after Lake County Judge George Strickland handed down his verdict against ex-Waukegan cop Dante Salinas. People milled about, whispered quietly, and looked unsure even if it was truly over. 

Moments earlier, Strickland had made a split ruling: he found Salinas guilty on one count of official misconduct, not guilty on one other count of official misconduct, and not guilty on the big ticket charge of aggravated battery. 

For both Salinas’ supporters and the Waukegan community members hoping he would face sterner justice, it was a less than ideal result. 

“I don’t know,” a community member going by Adele said after being asked how they felt about the verdict. Then, a long pause. 

“Personally, I wasn’t surprised,” she said at last. 

Community members at the verdict reading Friday felt the final decision was especially callous amid the state violence many working class Latine communities in Chicago are currently facing. Salinas repeatedly punched another Latino man during the 2019 confrontation, and his defense attorneys argued in court last week that the victim of the attack, Angel Salgado, was “tequila drunk.”

“This is happening in the context of not just police violence, but federal police violence,” a local activist named Don Gross said. “Our communities are under attack.”

Salinas’ trial began Monday and ran for three days, with Strickland taking Thursday to weigh the evidence and arguments presented. 

It’s still possible the now-fired cop could face years in prison for his felony official misconduct conviction. 

The incident behind the case took place on Aug. 31, 2019, shortly before 10 p.m. 

Salinas, that night patrolling a part of Waukegan that its police department has designated “a high crime zone,” can be seen in his body cam footage exiting his vehicle and almost immediately pointing his gun at an unarmed Angel Salgado. 

The body cam footage further shows Salgado cursing Salinas out while Salinas switches to a taser and orders Salgado to stay back. Salgado ultimately complies, notwithstanding moments when he briefly re-approaches the then-cop to insult him again. Salinas tases Salgado despite his compliance, and just as Salgado tries to re-enter the fence to his in-laws’ home — the family had been celebrating a baptism that night — Salinas strikes him and tackles him through the fence gate. 

After more Waukegan police officers arrive and pile on Salgado, Salinas strikes him again while he’s on the ground. Salgado reportedly had his facial bones broken in the encounter, with his left eye swelling shut for days afterwards. He was later awarded $300,000 in a civil rights suit settlement over the beating with no admission of wrongdoing by the City.  

In court more than six years later, Judge Strickland found Salinas was responsible for creating and escalating the 2019 encounter.

“He is responsible for everything that happened,” Strickland said. “He pushed the snowball down the hill.” 

The judge also found that Salinas’ arrest of Salgado was unlawful. Strickland opined that while Salgado may have been “obnoxious” and “profane” toward Salinas, he had committed no crime and presented no threat justifying Salinas’ initial use of force.

“I can’t remember a time a police officer resorted to this kind of force, this quickly,” Strickland said.

These findings formed the basis for Salinas’ conviction on one count of official misconduct. Strickland gave Salinas more benefit of the doubt — and a not guilty ruling on a second misconduct charge — for his conduct following the arrival of other police. 

Strickland remarked early in the verdict hearing that Salgado was “highly intoxicated” the night of his arrest; Salgado, while testifying Monday, conceded he had been drinking that night. The judge subsequently called Salgado “somewhat of a raging bull” while Salinas and other police were working to restrain and handcuff him.

The judge’s language here echoed that of Salinas’ defense attorney Joe Zeit. Zeit, during his closing arguments on Wednesday, leaned into the fact that Salgado had been drinking, with a bit of casual racism thrown in for good measure

“He had tequila muscles,” the defense attorney said Wednesday.

Strickland also said that from available video, he couldn’t determine if Salinas had ever struck Salgado with a weapon or object. Salgado maintained Monday that he had. The judge further claimed he couldn’t determine if Salinas’ punches themselves caused Salgado’s facial injuries, or if those injuries were caused by Salgado’s face hitting the ground. 

This was another contention Salinas’ defense attorneys raised during the trial. 

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart gave a neutral response when asked for his own response to Judge Strickland’s ruling. 

“The most important thing is we think about what Angel went through,” Rinehart said. “The court correctly found the officer…illegally used force in the face of the facts.” 

Salinas’ defense attorneys have not yet returned a request for comment on their own response to the verdict. His sentence hearing is set for Oct. 28.

After facing sentence for this case, Salinas faces yet another criminal trial, as well as three second degree murder charges and a 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 the community and family also held sustained protests. 

Rinehart did not give an exact timeframe for when this trial would begin.

Gross, meanwhile, said the Waukegan community now has its eye on the courts, especially on its handling of Salinas’ cases going forward. 

“I don’t know how things are gonna look like,” Gross said, “but people are paying attention.”