Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:
The politically connected fire chief of Elmwood Park, Michael Terzo, has resigned amid allegations that at the Tiny Tap on Aug. 10, he tried locking an employee of a local tavern in the beer cooler and slugged him, and perhaps another man, amid a booze-filled incident that’s led to criminal charges.
“The kid was being cocky,” Terzo later said, referring to the 24-year-old male victim according to police reports that also have Terzo saying: “He disrespected me.”
Police reports say the accuser’s job at Tiny Tap, 7648 W. North Ave., involves bringing “beer and ice from the cooler to the bar.” During his shift, he “noticed an unauthorized person in the cooler” and told the man, who turned out to be Terzo, “that only employees were allowed in the cooler.”
Terzo responded, “Do you know who I am?” the police report says. He then left the cooler.
Later, Terzo was standing behind the bar and the accuser asked him to move, the records say.
Terzo told him: “I’ll move when I get my beer.”
Around 1:20 a.m., a bartender told the accuser to “retrieve” some drinks from the cooler and when he “proceeded to the cooler,” he was “confined inside” by Terzo.
The employee “forced his way out of the cooler and escorted Terzo to the rear exit,” where Terzo punched the man, and may have inadvertently slugged someone else amid the fracas, records show. The accuser ended up in the hospital.
A village spokesman released a statement saying:
“The Elmwood Park fire chief was recently involved in an altercation at a private business in Elmwood Park while he was off-duty. A police report was subsequently filed at the Elmwood Park police station. Police were not called to the business.”
“Immediately upon learning about the incident, the village administration placed the fire chief on administrative leave. The investigation into the incident was turned over to the Cook County sheriff’s department per protocol.”
“On Aug. 14, the Elmwood Park fire chief submitted his resignation, which was accepted.”
Terzo, 55, wasn’t cited for any alcohol offenses but was hit with three other charges: Unlawful restraint, a felony; battery/physical contact, a misdemeanor; and criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor, according to the Cook County sheriff’s department.
That agency handled the case because Elmwood Park police had a conflict of interest.
thanks Dan
