In 2018, Chicago police officer Joseph DeRosa pleaded guilty to a felony in Michigan, admitting to resisting and obstructing police during an allegedly drunken meltdown at a casino. According to a police report, DeRosa kicked a Michigan officer in the face.

Under Illinois law, cops convicted of felonies lose their certification to be police officers in the state. The idea is to keep them from hopping from one law-enforcement employer to another.

Yet DeRosa is still a member of the Chicago Police Department.

CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs opened an investigation into DeRosa shortly after his arrest, and the department stripped the officer of his police powers. But it took 20 months for CPD to send notice of the felony conviction — notice required under the law — to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, according to that panel, which is in charge of decertifying cops.

Next it took the city’s Law Department another 31 months to move to fire DeRosa. Even today, the city’s Police Board has yet to schedule an evidentiary hearing on the dismissal charges.

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“If you wait too long, there is uncertainty both for the department and the officer as far as where they stand and whether they should continue to be the police,” said Yvette Heintzelman, an attorney who represents Chicago-area municipalities in police discipline cases. “More importantly, there’s uncertainty for the public as to whether the particular individual should be serving as a police officer — an important position that comes with a lot of responsibility.”

Shouted profanities and a kick to the lip

At five feet, ten inches, DeRosa is not that tall but weighs in at 245 pounds, according to the police report from Michigan. He’s big enough to be an offensive and defensive lineman for the CPD Enforcers, a tackle football team.

The evening of October 21, 2018, DeRosa and a buddy had a room at the Four Winds casino in New Buffalo, Michigan. After midnight, casino staffers noticed the two “swaying while playing the slot machines.”

They cut off DeRosa and his friend from any more booze and asked the pair to leave the gaming floor. They said DeRosa responded by cussing and verbally abusing the staff.

DeRosa’s profanities were allegedly so loud and abusive — “This is bullshit” and “Suck my d*** ” — that staffers detoured other guests to their hotel rooms through the back of the house. At least one worker pressed her Four Winds-issued panic button.

A security boss telephoned Kristen Lamphere, an officer of the Pokagon Tribal Police Department.

“I could hear a male voice yelling and arguing,” Lamphere reported about her arrival to the casino, referring to DeRosa. “I witnessed [the security boss] tell DeRosa that he was being trespassed and asked to leave the casino property.”

Lamphere reported she also observed signs of intoxication, including glossy red eyes and an odor of alcohol from DeRosa’s face.

DeRosa identified himself as a CPD officer and showed an expired Illinois firearm owner’s identification card, Lamphere reported.

Lamphere warned DeRosa she would arrest him if he didn’t leave, but he answered that she could not arrest him and kept referring to her as “Hun,” she wrote, “even after I asked him to not call me that.”

When Lamphere threatened to take him to jail, “DeRosa said that it was ‘bullshit’ and he did not do anything wrong.”

Lamphere reported she had to use two pairs of handcuffs “due to his larger stature.”

DeRosa then “refused to have a seat” in the back of the patrol car.

“I attempted to grab DeRosa’s legs and uncross them but quickly realized that DeRosa was not going to allow me to do that,” Lamphere wrote. “I told DeRosa that I was going to also arrest him for resisting and obstructing if he did not get into the car.”

Lamphere and two other officers “pushed on DeRosa’s body until he folded in,” she wrote, adding that one of the cops went to the other side of the car and “pulled him through the patrol car door to shut it.”

During that struggle, DeRosa kicked one of the officers “in the lip area,” Lamphere wrote. “Even while at the jail, DeRosa was loud and argumentative.”

Berrien County prosecutors charged DeRosa with two counts of resisting and obstructing a police officer — a Michigan felony punishable by up to two years in prison — as well as trespassing, a misdemeanor.

DeRosa’s guilty plea to one of the felony counts took place under a Michigan “delayed sentencing” law that allows a conviction to come off the defendant’s record at a later date.

In December 2019, a county judge ruled that DeRosa had successfully completed a year of probation, performed community service, and paid fees and court costs. The judge ordered the felony charge’s “dismissal.”

Unexplained delays

DeRosa, hired by CPD in 2006, has spent most of his police career in Austin, a busy West Side patrol district. After CPD stripped away his police powers, he worked in a unit that handles non-emergency calls and went on medical leave.

The department has not provided records showing what became of the internal investigation into DeRosa’s arrest. CPD spokespersons also would not answer why it took the department so long to send notice of the felony conviction to the state board in charge of decertifications.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office added DeRosa to its list of cops whom prosecutors are not to call on to testify in court. DeRosa was also moved into no-pay status in October 2020, according to CPD.

Kristen Cabanban, a Law Department spokesperson, did not answer why it took so long for the city to file DeRosa’s dismissal charges and whether that delay had anything to do with a staffing shortage in her department.

DeRosa’s attorney, John Ferrentino, declined to comment on the case. At a Police Board hearing last month, Ferrentino said there was “confusion” about whether DeRosa was convicted of a felony.

But Heintzelman, the attorney who represents municipalities, said the issue before the Police Board is not confusing.

“If he has been decertified, the individual in question cannot be the police in the state of Illinois,” Heintzelman said. “Period.”

Chip Mitchell reports on policing, public safety and public health. Follow him at @ChipMitchell1. Contact him at cmitchell@wbez.org.