Trial of cops accused in warrant scam set to begin Monday
Xavier Elizondo and David Salgado are accused of using bogus information to steal cash and drugs.
The trial of two Chicago police officers accused of using bogus information to steal cash and drugs is set to begin Monday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
Among those expected to testify in the 21st floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly is embattled Cook County Judge Mauricio Araujo, according to a witness list filed by federal prosecutors.
The feds first hit Xavier Elizondo and David Salgado in May 2018 with a three-count indictment alleging a conspiracy to commit theft and embezzlement. Earlier this year, a new indictment accused them of a civil rights conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Elizondo was also accused of trying to persuade Salgado to conceal evidence.
Elizondo and Salgado have been accused of abusing a system that lets cops use anonymous “John Doe” informants. An informant working for the officers gave false information to Cook County judges to get warrants that let the cops search properties where they stole money, drugs and cartons of cigarettes, according to the indictment. They also allegedly shared the illegal proceeds with informants.
Araujo is expected to answer questions about a warrant he signed for the officers outside a Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in River North, prosecutors have said.
In March, the Sun-Times published an investigation that showed Araujo approved nearly half the search warrants issued to Elizondo’s gang unit over three years. The FBI questioned Araujo about a month before Elizondo and Salgado were indicted.
Araujo isn’t accused of wrongdoing in the federal case. In his FBI interview, he described his relationship with Salgado as “more than an acquaintance but not quite a friend.” But he’s been accused in an unrelated matter of making improper advances toward a female police officer and a female court reporter as well as demeaning a female prosecutor.
During the investigation of Elizondo and Salgado, FBI agents set multiple traps for the officers, court records show. They hid thousands of dollars in a rental car and inside a stove in an unoccupied apartment the officers were led to believe was a stash house.
A federal source began posing as a tipster for the accused cops in December 2017 and told Elizondo about the stash house on the West Side, the feds say. Elizondo allegedly agreed to give the source a cut of whatever was found inside.
The officers’ other tipster allegedly helped them land a search warrant for the stash house using false information. Elizondo, Salgado and other officers raided it Dec. 20, 2017, and found the $15,000 the feds had stashed in the hood of a stove. However, the FBI had also placed closed-circuit recording devices in the apartment, which the officers found. So the cash was apparently inventoried with CPD.
In January 2018, the FBI stashed $18,200 in a rental car parked at a hotel near Midway Airport and left a key in the rear bumper. Elizondo, Salgado and other officers allegedly found the vehicle and drove it first to a warehouse before returning it to the hotel parking lot. Then they took it to a Mexican restaurant, where they ate dinner before driving it to Homan Square and making an inventory of just $14,000.
Federal agents came to tow the car at Homan Square the next day but ran into Salgado, according to a court document. They told him they were from internal affairs and, a short time later, Salgado allegedly called Elizondo to warn him.
Elizondo allegedly told Salgado to “just relocate everything, alright?”
“Just make sure whatever you have in your house isn’t there no more, you know what I mean?”
The trial is expected to last two weeks.