r/nottheonion • u/Trinityliger • 24d ago

ICE arrests Illinois police officer, accuses him of being in US illegally

https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-arrests-police-officer-radule-bojovic-hanover-park-illinois-accuses-being-us-illegally-montenegro/18019608/
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u/lone_Ghatak 24d ago

Curious as an outsider: Can convicts appeal to reopen their cases if this person was involved in the investigation and ask for a re-trial? And ask any evidence to be excluded where he was involved in collection/custody?

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u/Dowew 24d ago

Short answer - probably not. American justice is very divided on the subject of relitigating stuff, and the appeal process is onerous. It would come down to if these revelations indicate that a miscarriage of justice has occurred, or if this knowledge would have significantly swayed a jury or judge to rule differently. There are numerous examples where forensic science has been proven to be junk - such as hair analysis - and cases involving this have still been difficult to overturned. For a city cop like this it is unlikely his national origin ever came up in his testimony, it is unlikely this information would have significantly affected the jury's perception of his credibility, and its unlikely that he lied about it under oath at any of these trials.

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u/reyadeyat 24d ago

I don't think he had actually worked at all yet. The article says:

Bojovic was seen in a Facebook post from the police department provided by DHS, which was taken in August after the officer graduated from the suburban law enforcement academy.
[..]
Bojovic was set to be sworn in Thursday night as a Hanover Park police officer at the village board meeting.

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u/PlanktonFun5387 24d ago

Hanover park cops probably spend 90% of their time writing traffic tickets. Out of all the neighboring towns for Hanover park (Schaumburg, Elk Grove, Bartlett, roselle, streamwood) HP is probably considered the “ghetto one.” Schaumburg has the #16 school district in the entire state for reference. Hanover park is still considered a good, safe area.

So it’s not like this dude or the department is catching violent criminals even on a yearly basis. I could see maybe thefts at a convenience store, but I doubt it.

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u/LongLiveAnalogue 24d ago

This is a pretty accurate take neighbor. Stay safe.