EVANSTON, Ill. -- What should have been a simple pull-over for an alleged, minor traffic violation this spring instead ended up with a young man sent to the hospital after Evanston cops beat him up at their police headquarters. The beating occurred while Sayyid Qadri, 22, a resident of Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, was handcuffed with his hands behind his back. At least three Evanston police officers, including one of at least the rank of sergeant, were caught on police videotape witnessing the attack by two other officers, but failed to intervene.

On Thursday, September 2 the civil rights law firm of Loevy & Loevy will file suit in federal court on behalf of Mr. Qadri against the Evanston Police Department and individual police officers, and will host a press conference at the offices of Loevy & Loevy, 312 N. May Street, Suite 100, Chicago at 2 pm. Speakers at the press conference will include Sayyid Qadri and his attorneys, Jon Loevy and Mark Loevy-Reyes of Loevy & Loevy.

"There is videotaped evidence corroborating a beating. The police video shows an officer choking the victim while other police witnesses looked on," said Attorney Jon Loevy. "To conduct the main part of their attack, they purposely took this young man to the one place of their headquarters which does not have videotape coverage, the stall of a bathroom. However they continued the attack after they dragged the bleeding Mr. Qadri out of the bathroom stall, slamming him against the wall and choking him in full view of the camera."

At about 11 pm, March 10, Sayyid Qadri allegedly made an illegal right turn on red onto Ridge Avenue in Evanston. After making the turn, Qadri looked in his rearview mirror and saw an Evanston police car with its emergency lights flashing, whereupon Qadri pulled his car over. Evanston police officer G. Horemis discovered that Qadri's driver's license had expired a few weeks previously, whereupon he handcuffed Qadri behind the back and drove him to Evanston Police Headquarters at 1454 Elmwood Avenue. At no time did Qadri resist arrest for these alleged, minor infractions.

When they arrived at police headquarters, Horemis shoved Qadri out of the police car with more force than necessary, but Qadri nonetheless continued to cooperate and walked into the police station for processing. After entering the station, Horemis told Qadri that the police station is "my house, now you listen to me," or words to that effect. Qadri asked for his traffic ticket so that he could leave. When Qadri persisted in contending that he should be ticketed and allowed to leave, Horemis, who is much larger than him, grabbed Qadri and dragged him out of the clerical area where they had been standing. During this whole period Qadri was handcuffed with both hands behind his back and powerless to defend himself.

Horemis then pulled Qadri through a short hallway and into a bathroom while two additional police officers, M. Yorty and another as-yet-unidentified officer, followed closely behind. Officer Horemis forcefully shoved Qadri into a bathroom stall and choked him using both of his hands while Yorty and the unidentified officer stood outside the stall and looked in. Horemis lifted the 175 lb. Qadri off the ground by his neck as he continued to choke him.

Officer Yorty then entered the bathroom stall and grabbed Qadri's arms, allowing Horemis a free hand with which to slam Qadri's face into the bathroom wall. The blow tore a gash near Qadri's eye, which began to bleed profusely. As a result of the police blows to his head, Qadri became dizzy and had difficulty seeing because of the blood flowing from near his eye.

Horemis pulled Qadri out from the bathroom stall and in full view of the police videotape camera, slammed him down on a bench in the bathroom, after which he repeatedly, violently threw Qadri against the wall.

Officer Yorty then joined Horemis in taking turns slamming Qadri against the wall and Horemis again choked Qadri as he sat on the bench.

After the beating, a white-shirted Evanston police officer, indicating a rank of at least sergeant, came into the bathroom. Qadri told the officer that he had been beaten up by his fellow officers, but the ranking officer took no action to investigate the attack. Finally someone at the station did call an ambulance which, after a medical technician treated Qadri at the scene, took him to Evanston Hospital.

Officers Horemis and Yorty accompanied Qadri on the way back from the hospital to police headquarters, during which time they openly discussed how they were going to cover-up the attack on Qadri. The plan they settled upon was to charge Qadri with aggravated battery and criminal damage to property. At about 1 pm the following day, Qadri was transported to Cook County Jail at 26th and California in Chicago and was released on $10,000 bail at about 10 pm that night.

Even though the criminal charges were based on lies, the Cook County State's Attorney's office agreed to prosecute Qadri. The Evanston Police Department initially refused to release its security camera video to Qadri's defense attorney. Only after Qadri's attorney finally received the video and shared it with the state's attorney's office did the latter agree to drop all of the charges.

On March 12, 2004, two days after the beating, Qadri tried to file a complaint with the Evanston Police Department, but was repeatedly stonewalled. Qadri is filing the federal suit against Evanston and its police because the Police Department has refused to discipline its own.

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