A Chicago police officer faces dismissal and his detective brother has been suspended six months after an investigation found one of them used racial slurs and made a bogus distress call while the other pointed his gun at a mover during a bizarre prank.
Officer John Kaporis initially called police to his mother’s home on April 21, 2022 after he and his son found two women “cleaning without permission,” according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
When officers arrived, he told them that someone had been pranking his family “by requesting different services to the home.” He claimed the home had been burglarized. Body camera video captured him using a racial slur to describe the cleaners, who are Black, COPA said in a report.
After the officers left, John Kaporis waited outside for his brother, Detective Christoph Kaporis, who had been summoned to the home. As John Kaporis sat on the front steps, he saw U-Haul trucks stop and then drive off, prompting him to call 911.
When Christoph Kaporis arrived and learned what happened, he went to the backyard while his brother stayed in front, according to COPA. A U-Haul driver then stopped in the alley, and Christoph Kaporis intercepted a man who was walking toward the truck.
Christoph Kaporis pulled out his handgun and aimed it at the man, who insisted he wasn’t a threat and was just doing his job, COPA said. It turns out the man and the occupants of the U-Haul had been hired to move boxes through an online app.
Still, Christoph Kaporis grabbed the man, pushed him to the ground and held his arms behind his back, according to COPA. A neighbor eventually came outside and started recording on his cellphone.
After the neighbor asked Christoph Kaporis why he pulled his gun and detained the mover, the detective grew angry and encouraged the movers to target the neighbor’s home. Christoph Kaporis ultimately declined to provide his name or badge number and drove off, COPA said.
Around the same time, John Kaporis heard commotion in the alley and made an officer-in-distress call, COPA said.
Such a call, known as a “10-1,” is “the highest priority dispatch assignment for life threatening circumstances that compromise the safety and wellbeing of police, EMS, or fire units,” according to a police directive.
John Kaporis said he was trying to get officers to respond quickly, according to COPA. However, the first cops on the scene quickly clarified that there wasn’t a “10-1” emergency.
John Kaporis was then told that someone had pointed a gun at one of the movers, who had told the responding officers why they were there, COPA said.
“Good, they have every right to protect themselves,” John Kaporis said in defense of his brother’s actions.
Later that night, Christoph Kaporis showed up at the Lincoln District police station and admitted that he’d detained the mover, COPA said. He told a sergeant that he pulled his gun and ordered the mover to the ground because he didn’t have handcuffs on him.
In January, COPA initially found that the Kaporis brothers had violated various department rules and recommended they each face at least a one-year suspension, and at most dismissal.
In March, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s office urged COPA to reopen the investigation and consider whether John Kaporis had violated a departmental rule that bars officers from making false reports, pointing to the unnecessary “10-1” call.
John Kaporis had previously violated that same rule twice, according to Witzburg’s office. In 2001, he made false statements about his whereabouts while interacting with a person who made a complaint.
And in 2004, “he knowingly filed a false criminal report of forgery.”
Before she was mayor, Lori Lightfoot decried violations of what she described as the “you lie, you die” rule, which earned that name because infractions can lead to dismissal.
But in 2023, Witzburg’s office found that over 100 current and former Chicago cops had been allowed to stay on the force after making false statements.
COPA ultimately updated its findings in April to reflect that Kaporis had broken the rule. The change came with a firm recommendation to fire him.
In July, Police Supt. Larry Snelling concurred with COPA’s findings. John Kaporis should be terminated, and his brother should be suspended for 180 days, Snelling said.
Meantime, John Kaporis has been relieved of his policing powers and assigned to the Alternate Response Section, a unit staffed by cops with disciplinary and medical issues.
Christoph Kaporis remains on active duty in the Area 5 detective division, a police spokesperson said.