Former Chicago police sergeant sentenced to 13 years in federal prison

October 6th, 2020

Awake Goy

Convicted on eight counts,
including theft and drug charges, a former Chicago police sergeant was recently
sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for participating in a robbery and
extortion crew.

During the 1990s, Chicago Police
Sergeant Eddie Hicks participated in a four-man crew that used fake search
warrants in order to rob suspected drug dealers under the guise of police
investigations. Along with Chicago Police Sgt. Larry Hargrove, Illinois
Department of Professional Regulation employee Matthew Moran, and civilian CPD
electrical mechanic Lawrence Knitter, Sgt. Hicks utilized fake search warrants
and municipal
plates from out of service police vehicles to pull over drug dealers and
rob them at gunpoint or beat them if faced with resistance.

Between the early 1990s to 2001,
Hicks and his robbery crew stole thousands of dollars in cash, multi-kilogram
quantities of cocaine,
hundreds of pounds of marijuana, and several firearms.

All four crew members were arrested
and charged in federal court. Hicks fled Chicago in June 2003 while free
on bond and awaiting trial. He remained a fugitive until his arrest in
Detroit, Michigan, in September 2017.

Hargrove was sentenced to 13 years
in prison. Moran received a sentence of seven years and ten months in prison,
while Knitter was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison.

During Hicks’ trial, Knitter was
the government’s key witness against the former police sergeant. According to
federal prosecutors, Hicks was the mastermind behind the criminal operation.

In March 2019, a federal jury
convicted Hicks on all eight counts against him, including conspiracy to commit
racketeering, drug
conspiracy, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute,
carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and crime of
violence, theft of government funds, and failure to appear for a judicial
proceeding. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow sentenced him
to 13 years in federal prison.