Suspensions issued to cops who killed Dexter Reed over pattern of violating constitutional rights

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has concluded investigations into four additional traffic stops involving the same Chicago police officers who fired 96 shots at Dexter Reed in March 2024.

The findings were published on the same day the Chicago Police Department released their draft of a new traffic stop policy.

Police found no contraband and issued no citations as a result of any of the four traffic stops in question. Civilian investigators reached a litany of sustained findings, concluding officers repeatedly violated people’s constitutional rights and neglected to document their investigatory stops as required by department policy.

CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling concurred across the board with disciplinary recommendations for the involved officers. 

The officers who stopped and killed Dexter Reed received the following suspensions for their roles in the stops: Aubrey Webb, 60 days; Thomas Spanos, 22 days; Victor Pacheco, 15 days; and Gregory Saint Louis, 9 days. 

Alexandra Giampapa resigned from the department in November 2024 to join a police department in Ohio, avoiding discipline in these investigations and any that may stem from her role in killing Dexter Reed.

The investigation into Dexter Reed’s killing is still ongoing, and a final report has not been issued yet.

The other officers involved in the stops received the following suspensions: Dexter Calhoun, 15 days; Krisada Daorerk, 15 days; Tyler Alexander, 10 days; Sean Phelan, 7 days; Ivan Robles, 3 days; Pablo Cartagena, 3 days; Demetrius Robinson-Stanford, 2 days.

The investigations stem from complaints received prior to the killing of 26-year-old Reed. Following Reed’s death, COPA opened new investigations into dozens of previously unreported stops and searches by the 11th District tactical officers. Those investigations remain open. Two of the investigations involved stops that happened just weeks prior to Reed’s killing. 

On March 6, 2024, the team who killed Reed pulled over a man driving a black Maserati on the 3800 block of West Jackson Boulevard. Officer Ivan Robles, who was not involved in the killing of Dexter Reed, was also present.

As they did in their encounter with Reed, officers claimed the stop was over a seatbelt violation. Investigators say they are skeptical that officers could have seen the driver’s seatbelt through the vehicle’s tinted windows, however.

During the stop itself, officers gave multiple and inconsistent reasons for pulling the driver over, including that he was “flying,” eating, that his windows were too tinted, and that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. According to the report, however, when the driver is first seen on body-worn camera (BWC) footage, he is wearing a seatbelt, and investigators estimated that the driver was not likely speeding when he was pulled over.

Investigators also concluded that officers improperly detained and searched the man’s vehicle, failed to provide him with an Investigatory Stop Receipt, and failed to accurately document the circumstances around the stop in a Traffic Stop Statistical Study-Driver Information Card.

Two cops, Giampapa and Robles, also violated department policy by making unprofessional statements and threatening the driver with arrest when he requested that a supervisor be called to the scene.

According to the report, Robles threatened, “If a sergeant comes, you’re gonna get arrested for obstruction, all right?”

Giampapa added, “There’s no reason for you to be doing all this stupid ass shit. We’re not playing these stupid ass games with you. I’m not playing these stupid ass games with you.” 

Giampapa told investigators that her use of such language “was almost like a de-escalation tactic for me.”

Giampapa was also found to have conducted an improper patdown and search of the driver when she lifted his sweatshirt to inspect a “bulge,” which she claimed to see, but investigators said was never apparent on BWC video. Department policy indicates that police should only do same-gender patdowns whenever possible.

Just days before the stop of the Maserati, on March 1, 2024, 11th District officers blocked in a vehicle that was stopped along the side of the road near 3900 West Van Buren Street. In conducting this stop, officers Pacheco, Saint Louis, Spanos, and Webb, were joined by officers Sean Phelan and Pablo Cartagena. 

This time, they claimed the stop was due to the fact the car was stopped with its lights on—something investigators point out is not a valid reason to detain and search someone.

Investigators determined the stop and search was unjustified, that officers failed to properly document the stop, and they violated policy by turning off their BWCs before the stop concluded. Pacheco and Spanos were also found to have violated policy when they failed to identify themselves when asked by the driver.

Nearly a year earlier, on June 29, 2023, Officer Aubrey Webb, along with five other 11th District tactical officers, used three unmarked police vehicles to stop a man turning out of an alley onto Kedzie Avenue near West Fulton Boulevard over a purported seatbelt violation.

Officer Dexter Calhoun ordered a search of the vehicle when the man could not immediately locate his proof of insurance card. Calhoun claimed the search was justified because, “Him reaching around, like I said, I just didn’t [feel] comfortable.”

Investigators concluded that a driver needing a minute to find an insurance card was not sufficient justification to search the vehicle. Police again violated department policy by failing to provide the driver with an Investigatory Stop Receipt. Officer Demetrius Robinson-Stanford also failed to activate his BWC during the stop.

In the fourth investigation, Officer Thomas Spanos was found to have conducted an improper stop and search on August 31, 2023 around 600 South Cicero Avenue. Spanos said he stopped the man because he was “driving erratically,” and after the stop he could see a case of beer in the back. The driver offered to take a breathalyzer, which officers did not perform.

Spanos claimed the presence of the case of beer justified a search of the car. No contraband was found, and despite Spanos’ stated concerns that the driver was intoxicated, no citations were written. Spanos and his partner, Officer Anthony Doyle, also failed to complete an Investigatory Stop Report for the vehicle’s passenger.

Spanos, who fired more than 50 times at Dexter Reed, is one of the youngest and least experienced members of any CPD tactical team.

Superintendent Snelling had been critical of COPA’s then-Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten over the office’s investigation into the killing of Dexter Reed. Kersten resigned as head of COPA earlier this year. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson has appointed LaKenya White, who served as the agency’s director of investigations, to lead COPA in her place as the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is charged with finding a permanent replacement. 

Officers Curtis Alequin and Anthony Doyle received reprimands for their role in the four traffic stops. Snelling also said that officers would receive additional training on department policies and the Fourth Amendment. 

The superintendent ignored Kersten’s request to strip all of the officers involved in Reed’s death of their police powers. According to police attendance records, the four officers remaining on the force have been on administrative duties or medical leave since the killing.

City Council’s Finance Committee voted earlier this month to reject a $1.25 million settlement with Dexter Reed’s family.