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Past Issues January 2006 CTU lawyer called cops on Lynch June 1
| CTU lawyer called cops on Lynch June 1 |
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By George N. Schmidt Chicago Teachers Union attorney Lawrence Poltrock, who also serves as general counsel for the 1.3 million member American Federation of Teachers, was named in Chicago Police Department reports as the individual behind the controversial arrest of former CTU president Deborah Lynch at the union’s June 1, 2005 meeting.
Police reports naming Poltrock as the “complaining witness” in the highly charged incident were provided to Lynch’s attorneys in December as part of an ongoing lawsuit. The arrest took place a few minutes after Lynch gave a speech on behalf of her candidacy for the executive board post of high school functional vice president during the June 1 CTU House of Delegates meeting.
“Upon arrival, the union attorney Poltrock, Lawrence A... stated that subject Lynch, Deborah (Past Union President) was causing a disturbance at the union meeting,” the hand-written report by an officer identified as “R. Crotty” states. As a result of the police call, Lynch was led from the meeting by two uniformed police officers, confined inside a Chicago police squad car for approximately 30 minutes, and released with a warning from police not to return to the meeting, despite the fact that no formal charges were brought against her.
Lynch’s supporters and friends, including former union treasurer Maureen Callaghan, said at the time that they were with Lynch inside the meeting and that she hadn’t done anything illegal. Lynch said at the time that she had remained on the main floor of the meeting because she wanted to observe the counting of the ballots in the race in which she was one of two candidates. She finally returned to the balcony, which is reserved as a “Visitor’s Section” for union members who are not delegates, after being asked to leave the main floor by union security people, including field representative Ted Hajihara.
Poltrock’s refusal to sign a formal complaint against Lynch ultimately resulted in Lynch’s being released from police custody. Lynch’s released, however, only came after she had been taken from the meeting during the counting of the votes for the office she had been seeking. Lynch won the election and now served on the union’s executive board. Following the incident, Lynch’s attorneys filed a lawsuit on her behalf.
After nearly six months of delays, the Chicago Police Department finally released key documents in the arrest in December 2005. The documents, including written reports by the “Responding Officers” (ROs), state that the official calling for the police was CTU attorney Lawrenece Poltrock.
A key question at the time was who had asked the police to arrest Lynch. When members of the House of Delegates raised an uproar from the floor of the meeting, demanding to know why CTU President Marilyn Stewart had ordered the arrest of Lynch, Stewart stated that she had no idea what people were talking about, according to transcripts of the union meeting and several people present. Others who were said at the time to have been behind the police call, including CTU vice president Ted Dallas, were indentified during the heated exchanges outside the meeting as having either made or authorized the police call, but denied doing so. At one point during the events, Poltrock entered the back seat of the police car, where Lynch was being held. At the time, witnesses on the scene told Substance that Poltrock had identified himself as Lynch’s attorney. [A photograph of Poltrock in the police vehicle with Lynch was published in the September issue of Substance and appears on the Substance website at www. substancenews .com /Mambo/content/view/261/81/]. The documents accompanying this article were provided to Lynch’s attorneys only after a court order was entered on November 23, 2005. The documents regarding the arrest consist of four affidavits from police officers who were called to the scene, including the affidvaits of the two officers who took Lynch out of the meeting. Also included in the material is the handwritten “Informaton Report” filed by Officer Crotty on June 1 following the end of the incident [below right]. Attorney Poltrock did not return a Substance call asking for comment. A spokesperson for the Chicago Teachers Union did not return a Substance call asking for comment. CTU President Marilyn Stewart has refused a Substance interview request for more than two months. Such an interview will include questions about Stewart’s role in the harassment and arrest of Lynch at the June 1 meeting.
CTU newspaper continued UPC effort to mislead members...Immediately after Chicago police removed former CTU President Deborah Lynch from the June 1 union meeting, members of Marilyn Stewart’s United Progressive Caucus (UPC) began to claim that Lynch had called the police on herself to create an incident. Over the next several months, versions of the UPC story were told and retold.
One unusual version of the incident appeared in the September issue of the official union newspaper (below). The Chicago Union Teacher also published a letter from one union member claiming that she had been misquoted in one of our reports on the incident — despite the fact that Substance had confirmed the quote with the member twice.
View the The Chicago Union Teacher's version of the arrest (PDF) View the police report of the arrest (PDF) |
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Left: Officer Crotty leads Deborah Lynch out of Plumbers Hall June 1, 2005. Although the Chicago Union Teacher newspaper in its October edition tried to claim that the arrest was not an arrest, the officers made it clear that Lynch could not leave their custody during the incident. Later, many felt that the arrest was part of a pattern of harassment against Lynch that had included the disruption of Lynch’s speech by Financial Secretary Mark Ochoa as part of the union leadership’s campaign to defeat Lynch in the election for the vacant executive board seat that night. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Left: Lawrence Poltrock (left) talks with one of the officers who responded to his call that formner union president Deborah Lynch was causing a “disturbance” at the June 1, 2005, CTU House of Delegates meeting. Poltrock’s call resulted in Lynch’s being removed from the meeting by Chicago police and detained inside a police car while votes were being counted in the election for an executive board seat where Lynch was a candidate. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt| < Prev | Next > |
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