When the CHA found aluminum frames being stolen off windows at the Robert Taylor Homes five years ago, it accused David Coleman, a 38-year-old CHA maintenance supervisor, of the thefts. On April 29, 1989, CHA chairman Vince Lane, having interrogated Coleman in a police cell, announced that he’d identified the “tip of the iceberg” of a burglary ring responsible for stealing millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and supplies. The CHA fired Coleman and prosecuted him on charges of theft and official misconduct, offenses that can bring a 40-year jail sentence.
The cart was brought to building headquarters. Coleman’s immediate supervisor, Clarence Brooks, called the police. They came, and Coleman signed the police report. According to Coleman, Brooks said in the presence of at least six witnesses that “he was going to send the junk to a scrap yard because he didn’t want it cluttering things up.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Two days later, Brooks asked Willie Mays, a friend of his and Coleman’s, to take the aluminum to a junkyard shredder, says Coleman. “I told Willie he could take the scrap over in my truck.” Brooks opened the heavy metal door to the garage where the cart had been stored, Mays drove the truck in, the three men loaded the scrap and the cart onto the truck, and Mays drove it away, says Coleman. About two hours later the police arrived.
“That’s when I got angry. What does my family have to do with this? I told the guard, ‘Get his ass out of my cell.’” Lane publicized the arrests, which were reported in the Tribune and Sun-Times.
Smith and other observers, assuming Lane was the one blocking Coleman’s reinstatement, expected the CHA chairman to provide some dramatic testimony. But Lane testified that he had only a hazy recollection of Coleman or his case, even though it was the only time he had ever been to a jail cell to question an arrested employee. “I asked Lane if he had ever seen the aluminum that had been stolen, and he said no,” says Smith. “I said, ‘Would you be interested in seeing it now?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I wheeled in this old shopping cart with the wobbly wheels and the 15 dollars’ worth of crummy aluminum strips. It looked ridiculous.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Kathy Richland.
