Two years after videos showing a Chicago police officer grabbing and restraining a woman walking her dog at North Avenue Beach went viral, prosecutors dropped charges against the former officer who resigned following the furor over the on-duty incident.

Bruce Dyker, 53, was charged last year with aggravated battery in a public place and two counts of official misconduct in connection with the alleged attack. Attorneys in the case previously reserved a bench trial date for Tuesday.

The videos triggered a federal lawsuit, an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, as well as a response from then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said she was “quite disturbed” by the footage.

“After consultation with the victim and her attorney, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office (CCSAO) will not be proceeding with the criminal charges against former CPD Officer Bruce Dyker,” a spokeswoman for the office said in a statement, adding that a civil case is pending.

Tim Grace, Dyker’s attorney, said Dyker was in a “no-win” situation and that the case should have never been charged.

“The officer was doing his job. His job is to make sure that people do not go on the beach when the park is closed and once again we’re in a situation where he gave verbal direct order that was legal,” he said. “Some people don’t believe they need to follow the orders of police. He was put in a position where she wouldn’t leave and he had to move her off the beach.”

Videos of the August 2021 incident — including one taken by bystanders and another captured by Dyker’s body camera — show Dyker, who is white, approaching Nikkita Brown, who is Black, at North Avenue Beach around midnight. Dyker ordered Brown to leave the park, which was closed, as she backed away from the officer.

Brown told Dyker to not come closer because he wasn’t wearing a mask, according to the video, while he continued to approach to order her to leave the beach.

“Get out of the park. What do you not understand about that? The park is closed. You are trespassing on city property, and you will go to jail if you don’t take your dog and leave,” Dyker eventually yelled at Brown, according to the video.

“I feel threatened,” Brown says as she stops walking.

“Good,” Dyker said in the video. “I’m about to put handcuffs on you if you don’t keep walking. Do you want to test me on this.”

Dyker grabbed her arm, according to the video, and tried to restrain her as she shouted, “Let go!”

After about a minute of tussling with her, the two separated, and Brown picked up her phone and walked out of the park with her dog on a leash as the two argued.

In a report following the investigation, COPA found that Dyker used an unreasonable level of force and did not properly use de-escalation techniques.

“Video footage of this incident has been widely circulated and brought significant discredit to the department,” the COPA report said. “Officer Dyker’s entire interaction with (Brown) was an abject failure.”

The office, though, found that Dyker did not racially profile Brown because, according to body-worn camera footage, Dyker appeared to also give a Black couple and four white or Hispanic males the same order to leave the park before his interaction with Brown.

A lawyer for Brown previously said it was “an obvious case of racial profiling.”

Dyker, a 23-year veteran of the Police Department, left the force before the department had announced any formal disciplinary action taken against him.

Brown sued Dyker and the city of Chicago last year, alleging excessive force and other constitutional violations. The lawsuit accuses Dyker of having a “shocking history of misconduct against minorities during his more than twenty-year career as a CPD officer.”

The complaint says Dyker racked up at least 24 civilian complaints and has been named in two civil rights lawsuits brought by minority plaintiffs.

Dyker is one of a number of local police officers charged in recent years with allegations related to actions conducted while on duty, but the dropped case underscores challenges in obtaining convictions for officers for the alleged on-duty incidents.

In January, a judge found a Chicago police lieutenant not guilty after he stood trial on accusations that he shoved a flashlight between a clothed teen’s buttocks during an arrest.

Months earlier in November, CPD Officer Melvina Bogard was acquitted by a judge after prosecutors charged her with aggravated battery and official misconduct in connection with a shooting at the Grand Red Line stop in 2020.

There are at least five other officers facing charges in Cook County connected to on-duty incidents.

Among those, a Cook County grand jury earlier this year indicted an Oak Lawn police officer for aggravated battery and official misconduct for allegedly striking a Bridgeview teen more than 10 times in the face and head as he was laying face down in the street during an arrest captured on video.

mabuckley@chicagotribune.com

Originally Published: Aug 08, 2023 at 2:53 pm