A Dolton, Illinois, police officer, Lewis A. Lacey, has found himself on the other side of the law after being indicted on charges of bankruptcy fraud, perjury, and making false declarations in bankruptcy cases, following an investigation that peered into several of his personal bankruptcy filings over the past decades.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Small Business Administration, Lacey's legal entanglements originated from a lawsuit settlement that he had not fully honored, with about $43,000 still hanging in the balance, deploying bankruptcy filings in 2019 and 2020 to stave off enforcement of that agreement for which he owed since the 1980s, and in a nod to justice's long, unmetered cadence.
As reported on the U.S. Department of Justice website, Lacey misrepresented several key financial details, stating he was separated from his wife, to who according to the indictment, he alleged had no contribution to his household income or mortgage payments, when in reality the undisclosed joint creature comforts played into a dance of dollars beneath the penumbra of court proceedings.
Each charge in the nine-count indictment could send Lacey behind bars for up to five years, but as the pillars of the American justice system stand, an indictment is not outright evidence of guilt and Lacey is entitled to a fair trial where, as the tradition goes, the government shoulders the burden to prove the charged officer's guilt beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt.
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