Chicago Ald. Ed Burke’s son was arrested at his North Shore home and charged with domestic battery last June, but the charges were dropped just three days later.
Police and court records obtained by WBEZ show that Ed Burke Jr. was arrested for allegedly being verbally and physically aggressive towards a woman in his Winnetka home early in the morning of Friday, June 29, 2018. By the following Monday, the domestic battery charges had been dropped at the request of Burke Jr.’s wife.
“Due to insufficient evidence, we were not able to proceed with the charges,” said Tandra Simonton, the spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
This week, Burke Jr.’s name entered into Chicago’s hotly contested mayoral race when the Chicago Tribune reported that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration hired him after she talked about the job with Ald. Burke. That was after Burke Jr. was the subject of a workplace misconduct investigation for allegedly being disrespectful towards women and “talking openly about sex” while previously working at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
He left while those investigations were ongoing to take a job the Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Preckwinkle’s office has maintained it did not know about the investigation. A spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.
Simonton, the state’s attorney’s spokeswoman, did not respond to a question about whether Foxx or anyone from her office talked about the case with Ald. Burke or anyone from his office.
The domestic incident happened more than a month after Burke Jr. left his job in Preckwinkle’s administration.
Winnetka police arrived at Burke Jr.’s house around 5 a.m. on June 29 in response to a 911 call. The caller reported he was acting violently, and cops said Burke Jr. was “naked and appeared extremely intoxicated,” according to the police report. The report says the victim, whose name was redacted, claims Burke shoved and pushed them.
Burke Jr. was arrested for domestic battery and ordered to turn over two Glock 9 mm pistols. Police say Burke was still belligerent and yelling obscenities at officers by his 10 a.m. bond court appearance.
According to a court transcript of that hearing, Burke Jr.’s public defender noted that his client spent 26 years at the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department. When Judge Callie Lynn Baird asked what his job was, his attorney Debra Zisook responded that Burke Jr. was chief of the courthouse at 555 W. Harrison St. in Chicago.
“In the Domestic Battery Division,” she told the judge.
The judge ordered Burke Jr. not to have contact with his wife or return home for 72 hours and, at her request, not to drink alcohol.
At another hearing on July 2, Burke Jr.’s wife showed up in person to testify that she wished to drop all criminal charges against him, saying she felt safe without an order of protection against him. The judge then dismissed the charges.
Burke Jr.’s wife did not respond to requests to comment, and WBEZ was unable to reach Ed Burke Jr.
