The Dolton police chief indictment, explained

The Dolton, Illinois Deputy Police Chief, Lewis Lacey, was placed on administrative leave last week, and has now been indicted after being accused of attempting to conceal his assets and lie about his income.

Lacey, 61, has been indicted on nine counts in total with five being for bankruptcy fraud, two counts for making false statements, and another two counts for perjury, according to an article from CBS News.

Lacey allegedly filed for bankruptcy a number of times starting in 1984 and the most recent petitions being in 2019 and 2020. The last two came after Lacey had agreed to a $55,000 settlement in 2017. His two most recent bankruptcy petitions automatically stayed the enforcement of the settlement agreement from 2017, which, at the time he still had $43,000 left to pay.

Lewis Lacey has been lying for years

All in all, Lacey has filed for bankruptcy nine times but prosecutors are accusing the Deputy Chief of lying about his income claiming that he earned $5,000 monthly, which was apparently a lot lower than what he was actually earning. Lacey made significantly more money through working overtime, and was paid $39,000 in the fiscal year 2022, $67,000 the following year, and $96,000 for fiscal year 2024.

Lacey wasn’t the only officer who was earning an insane amount of money through overtime; it was discovered that two other officers had earned over $100,000, practically doubling their salary. Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the discovery after looking into Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s allocation of funds, which revealed that the village outside Chicago is in debt by $3.5 million.

Aside from lying about his income, Lacey also hid the fact that he had multiple bank accounts and also claimed that he and his wife were separated and even living apart, meaning she did not contribute to his income.

It seems like Lewis Lacey has spun a complicated web of lies that is all coming down now. However, the deputy chief does have his defenders. According to an article from ABC 7 Chicago, Lacey’s lawyer, Gal Pissetzky, claims that the government and people in Dolton have it out for the mayor, Tiffany Henyard, and that they are trying to get to the mayor by going for people that served under her.

“He has been serving the community. He has been a police officer for many years. He has been an outstanding citizen of the city of Dolton, or the village of Dolton,”

Is there any truth to Pissetzky’s claims? Who can say? What we can say is it looks like the prosecution have all the evidence required to charge Lacey, despite his maintaining his innocence.