Police officer Hester Scott made a simple vow to friends and relatives who questioned the wisdom of continuing to raise a troubled grandson who’d caused her so much grief.
“I’ll fight till my dying breath to turn his life around,” she told her sister Marlene Thursday night.
Less than 24 hours later, prosecutors say, that promise had become a chilling prophecy.
But her world collapsed when a mentally ill Keshawn accused her of abuse in August 2007, relatives said. Though the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services eventually dismissed the allegations, the children were taken out of her care for several months, and she was stripped of her police powers pending an investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, they said.
Four years later, she was still doing desk duty, had not had her gun or star returned to her, and was “living under a cloud” they said, urging IPRA to close it’s investigation and the department to posthumously restore Scott’s police powers so that she can be buried with her reputation intact.
DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe said that Illinois law prevents him from discussing the history of any investigation into Scott and Perkins “out of respect for the accused minor.”
But Chicago Police spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton confirmed that Scott had been stripped of her police powers. She referred all questions to IPRA, where general counsel Eric Muellenbach said no details on the case were immediately available Sunday.
All allegations had been dismissed by DCFS. The kid was a known psycho with mental problems. But his allegation kept Officer Scott stuck at callback even though there was never any proof of any malfeasance on her part. Great fucking system we've got there.