Bad Penny Turns Up

We admit missing this story the other day:

• A Chicago police commander who was charged with harassing her former boyfriend by telephone was acquitted this week of all charges, authorities said.

  Harrison District Cmdr. Penelope Trahanas was removed from her position after a former boyfriend, also a police officer, filed a report alleging that she had threatened his job.

  The former boyfriend, Matthew Jackson, also filed for an order of protection.

  The protection order was dropped in May, and on Tuesday a Cook County judge acquitted Trahanas of the misdemeanor harassment charge.

  Thomas Needham, Trahanas' attorney, said the evidence - including text and voice messages between the two -- showed that Jackson and Trahanas were involved in a mutual dispute.

We figured this wasn't going anywhere. After all, the two or three different tiers of discipline require that exempts get off on charges that would keep a PO at call back for years. Evidently it's perfectly OK to threaten someone's job and create a hostile work environment on voice mail - there's got to be a few dozen Officers at call back whose lawyers are salivating at this.

Now we get this letter from a cop in 011:

• Penny returned from exile today. She gave speech to all the roll calls thanking everyone for prayers and support. Then she told everyone that "I am the Commander and we are all moving forward from this point on." Later she took a ride to the acting commanders house and removed her car from in front of his house without calling ahead to have him empty out all his equipment.
  

We also got this letter:

• It seems the 011 District Commander's office got a phone call from a reverend Friday to congratulate Trahanas for being reinstated after her disgraceful behavior. No one knew what was going on until the reverend spilled the beans that Mike Masters had told the reverend Penny was coming back Saturday. No one told 011 or it seems the Area 4 Deputy Chief's office that the Bad Penny had turned up once again. If you had any doubts about whose running the show, you shouldn't anymore.

Penny and Ernie. Sounds like a Muppet show, but it shows what a disaster J-Fled is presiding over. Neither of these two is fit to be a shift manager flipping burgers, yet they're commanding men and women who put their lives on the line day in and day out.