A former Chicago police officer has been charged with lying about an ex-girlfriend stealing his car in order to avoid paying 44 traffic tickets.
Jeffrey Kriv, 56, faces felony perjury and forgery charges for the alleged scheme that spanned a decade and saved him $3,665, according to a detailed joint report by The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica. Cook County prosecutors say Kriv successfully used the same excuse at least 44 times since 2013.
The last time he did so, in September 2022, Kriv allegedly told a judge that he got into a fight with his then-girlfriend the morning the ticket was issued and she stole his car. As several times before, Mr. Kriv showed the court what he claimed was legitimate documentation, including allegedly falsified police reports on the alleged theft.
“Well, I had her arrested,” Kriv said, according to court transcripts reviewed by the court. Grandstand and ProPublica. “She was charged with misdemeanor trespassing…she received, like, three months of supervision or something. It’s kind of, I don’t want to say the system is like a joke, but it didn’t really do anything.”
The investigative report also uncovered several complaints filed against Kriv from the time he joined the Chicago Police Department in 1996 until his retirement on January 17 of this year. Despite having 20 suspensions totaling 170 days throughout his time on the force, department officials never attempted to fire Mr. Kriv until five days before his retirement.
The city first learned of Kriv’s alleged counterfeiting crimes after a complaint was filed with the Office of the Inspector General last year. The information alleged that Kriv used the same alibi when he contested dozens of tickets over the past decade, ranging from speeding, running a red light and illegal parking.
Tim Grace, Kriv’s attorney, played down the allegations, saying his client’s character has been misrepresented.
“Many of the facts that it composes are incomplete or not true,” Grace told the Grandstand and ProPublica in a statement, highlighting more than 100 awards Mr. Kriv has reportedly received. “Officer Kriv has served his city with his honor for more than 25 years.”
According to the Citizen Police Data Project, Mr. Kriv had 76 complaints and 39 reports of use of force, more than 99 percent of other officers.
Records show that Mr. Kriv had a lengthy disciplinary record during the nearly 27 years he served.
According to those reports, Kriv used a flashlight to break a man’s car window during a traffic stop, punched another man who was handcuffed in the back of his car, and described a woman as “white trash” in a report. of incident.
Mr. Kriv was suspended for 20 days in 2005 for threatening sanitation workers with ticketing their cars after an employee of the city’s Department of Sanitation and Streets legitimately towed away his personal vehicle. The following year, he was suspended for 90 days for leaving the scene of a car fire to visit a waitress at a strip club.
He returned to work after just 45 days.
A woman also told the Grandstand and ProPublica that Mr. Kriv punched her in the face after arresting her for a domestic dispute. Charges against the woman were dismissed and she was paid $100,000 in a settlement after suing Kriv and the city.
“I had to have surgery. They had to implant plastic under my eye because of this,” the woman told the publications. “My face is no longer symmetrical. It really ruined me on the outside. And inside it was a really traumatic experience.”
Mr. Kriv was ordered released on his own recognizance in January. He last appeared in court in March.
the independent He has contacted his lawyer.
