Cops sought misdemeanor charge in Foxx ‘Big Gulp’ attack. Here’s how it became a felony.

CHICAGO — Police officers in south suburban Flossmoor intended to file a misdemeanor charge against the man accused of tossing a soft drink on Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and reversing his truck toward her. Foxx, however, was unimpressed with the police department’s investigation.

Sent packing without her signature on the misdemeanor complaint, the cops started to work the case again. Within hours, attorneys from Foxx’s office were in Flossmoor to review the case, which eventually ended with two felony charges filed.

Those are some of the details CWBChicago has learned through conversations with people familiar with the investigation and public records requests, including newly received footage from the body cameras worn by Flossmoor cops that day.

Foxx insists that she never asked anyone from her office to get involved in the case, which she sincerely believes involved a man’s attempt to run her over with a pickup truck, according to a high-ranking employee of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

It is unclear exactly how prosecutors became involved in the case, but records show that the county’s felony review unit supervisor personally handled the matter.

Here is a full accounting of what we have learned.

The assault

At about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, June 21, Foxx was taking a walk near her Flossmoor home. As she walked, a man driving a pickup truck on the opposite side of the road yelled for her to “Get the f*** off the road, b****,” a Flossmoor police report said.

Foxx flipped the driver off. He stopped and “zig-zagged” in reverse quickly toward Foxx, who “felt unsafe” and stepped out of the roadway as the driver stopped very close to her, according to the report.

The driver and Foxx exchanged words and the driver tossed the contents of a Big Gulp cup on her face. Because some of it landed in Foxx’s mouth, she believed the liquid was root beer.

After the assault, Foxx called a member of her security detail and Risa Lanier, her top assistant at the State’s Attorney’s Office, according to an individual familiar with the matter. Public records show that the security detail contacted Flossmoor PD’s Acting Chief Keith Taylor, who asked the local beat officer to take Foxx’s report.

On Monday, pursuant to a public records request, CWBChicago received the body camera footage of that initial contact. It shows the officer arriving, speaking with a member of the security detail, and interviewing Foxx.

“I jump on the sidewalk because I think this man is trying to hit me,” Foxx told the cop, saying the driver reversed “full speed.”

“I’m watching his hands because he looked, no offense, like someone who doesn’t like Black people,” Foxx remarked, “and I’m nervous because all of it is over the top.”

At that point, the man took a lid off his Big Gulp cup and threw the liquid in her face, Foxx reported.

There was a witness, Foxx explained: “She, too, was like, ‘I thought he was trying to hit you.'”

The Arrest

According to reports provided by Flossmoor PD, a detective began to investigate the case by reviewing license plate reader data and searching the neighborhood for surveillance cameras with the beat officer.

About three hours after the incident, the detective was waiting to review camera footage at a restaurant when he received word that Foxx’s security team had located the pickup truck at the town library. He went to the library and took pictures of the truck, which had “dried liquid streaks” on the driver’s door.

Joined by the beat officer, he located the truck’s owner, Flossmoor resident William Swetz, inside the library and conducted a short interview. After initially claiming he “didn’t have a clue” about what the cops were talking about, Swetz quickly admitted that he was involved in the incident but didn’t know who the woman was.

The detective told Swetz, “It’s gonna be, from our, as of right now, a misdemeanor. Okay?” He added that he needed to take Swetz to the police station “briefly” and that Swetz would be released from there.

“We’ll try to make this as quick as possible,” the officer said.

It turned out to be anything but quick. Swetz would be in custody for more than 48 hours.

Here is the Flossmoor body camera footage of the interview, arrest, and transport of Swetz as provided by the police department. We have added a watermark to the video.

Misdemeanor paperwork

About an hour after the cops found Swetz, they joined the acting police chief at Foxx’s home to present her with a misdemeanor battery complaint. Flossmoor PD did not provide camera footage of the encounter, and its acting chief did not respond to an email asking if footage existed.

Based on police reports and conversations with knowledgeable sources, Foxx rejected the misdemeanor complaint, believing Flossmoor PD had not conducted a complete investigation. Rather than interviewing her and the witness personally, the detective gathered information by reviewing the first officer’s body camera footage, the source said.

On another point, Foxx felt it was inappropriate for the detective to tell her, a crime victim, that he had come to her house without taking a lunch break, said the source.

The detective reportedly told Foxx that Flossmoor PD does not utilize a state felony charge known as “aggravated battery in a public place.” That statute allows virtually any battery to be upgraded to a felony if it takes place in public.

Foxx also spoke at length about her belief that the driver was going to strike her with his truck, police reports say.

The Flossmoor contingent left Foxx’s home, tails between their legs, to further investigate the allegation that Swetz assaulted her with his truck.

CWBChicago has been told multiple times in other situations that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office does not generally approve aggravated battery in a public place as a standalone charge.

“I’m not sure if it was a formal policy,” a former prosecutor said this week. “I know we never charged it.”

Former Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel agreed.

“The state attorney’s office often will not approve aggravated battery charges unless other charges are involved. That means they will not approve it as a standalone charge,” Weitzel said Tuesday. “For that to happen, something else may occur, such as a disturbance, disorderly conduct, or some public event. It is not always the case, but it is the norm.”

Since 2022, prosecutors have approved 17 cases for the Chicago Police Department that included no charge other than aggravated battery in a public place. According to CPD data, twelve of those cases began as some other type of felony battery, including a shooting, a murder, and several cases that began under the state’s “great bodily harm” statute.

The road to felonies

Shortly after leaving Foxx’s home, the detective and beat cop re-interviewed the witness. 

“It was almost an energy where, this man’s got a shotgun… No, I’m serious,” the woman stated.

While Foxx told officers during her first interview that the witness thought the driver was going to hit her with the truck, the witness told the cops that “that didn’t come to mind.”

Back at the station, the detective told Swetz that the investigation had taken a turn “based on the victim’s belief that he may have been trying to run her over,” a Flossmoor report said.

“I did not, I did not, I was five feet from her, I will admit that,” Swetz allegedly replied. “I mean, I threw a drink in her face, that’s it… I would never try to run someone over.”

Shortly before 7 o’clock that Friday evening, a Flossmoor PD records clerk informed the detective that two prosecutors from Foxx’s office were in the police station lobby. According to records, one of those prosecutors was Kim Ward, the supervisor of the Felony Review Unit, which is responsible for approving all felony charges filed in the county.

“I was informed that they had been sent to the Flossmoor Police Department to review this investigation,” the detective wrote in a report. The attorneys reviewed the case materials and left at 9:52 p.m., saying they’d return on Saturday morning.

Swetz spent the night in custody.

Exactly who sent Ward and the other felony review lawyer to Flossmoor is unclear. The police department’s acting chief did not respond to an email asking if the department had contacted the state’s attorney’s office; however, there are no notes in the police reports that indicate any calls were made.

“It is unusual for the state’s attorney’s office to visit local police departments for aggravated battery cases that do not involve significant injury or exceptional circumstances,” said Weitzel, the former Riverside chief. “In my 37 years of law enforcement, I have never seen the head of the felony review unit make such an appearance.”

“At the same time, this might be understandable to a certain extent,” Weitzel conceded. “Everyone wants to please the boss. But to think that this is anything more than favoritism is absurd.”

The next day, Saturday, Ward personally interviewed Foxx for nine minutes at the Flossmoor police station, a report said. Foxx’s statements were “similar” to what she previously said, the detective noted. 

Ward also interviewed the witness, who said the truck would have hit Foxx “had she not stepped off of the roadway,” a police report stated.

After the witness and Foxx identified Swetz in photo line-ups, Ward “made contact with her notifier,” according to a separate police report. When she returned to the detective’s office, Ward “advised that after discussion, it was determined” that Swetz would be charged with two felonies: aggravated battery in a public place and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. The identity of the “notifier” is unknown.

At that point, the cops fingerprinted and photographed Swetz, who was taken to court for an initial appearance on Sunday, two days after being arrested. Judge Antara Rivera released him with orders to stay away from Foxx.

During his next court appearance, prosecutors presented video evidence that allegedly showed Swetz driving past Foxx’s home after being told to stay away. The judge during that hearing put him on an ankle monitor.

A review of felony review

Weitzel is no fan of the felony review process, which he says is an administrative step created and imposed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office long before Foxx took office.

“It is not a state statute. The review process was initially established so the state’s attorneys could better handle the cases and be prepared to prosecute them when they came to court,” according to Weitzel. “It is now a process used to eliminate cases the state feels it cannot win.”

“Various efforts have been made to eliminate felony review legislation in Springfield over the last several years, but those have stalled.”

Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.