Nineteen ninety-seven was a difficult year for police superintendent Matt Rodriguez. Seven Austin District police officers were under indictment on corruption charges, and several off-duty police died under suspicious circumstances. The 12th District commander made disparaging remarks about Hispanics. The Fraternal Order of Police announced a vote of “no confidence” against Rodriguez on November 3. Yet it was a friend of 38 years who effectively ended Rodriguez’s career.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
A November 14 story in the Chicago Tribune disclosed a friendship between Rodriguez and Frank Milito, a restaurateur and former owner of several Amoco gas stations, who had been convicted of two counts of felony mail fraud and one count of income tax evasion in 1986. More recently he had been questioned by the FBI regarding the ten-year-old murder of Charles E. Merriam, an Amoco executive gunned down in his Prospect Heights home. The Tribune mentioned that Rodriguez ate at Milito’s restaurant often and that they once had traveled to Los Angeles together to see Pavarotti and World Cup soccer. Though not criminal, the friendship violated rule 47 of the police conduct code, which prohibits “associating or fraternizing with any person known to have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, either state or federal, excluding traffic and municipal violations.”
“If Mike ran the city government,” said Harrison, “the people of Chicago were to be congratulated that he was born and lived among them.”
“My theory is that the Chicago Police Department is better managed today than it was before. But that says an awful lot, because it was so bad before and people just don’t realize it….I think Mr. Rodriguez was a decent man, he just had unfortunate associations, as a lot of them did.”
