Former Chicago Police Officer Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for Participating in Robbery and Extortion Crew

In the 1990s, EDDIE C. HICKS and three others participated in a robbery ring that targeted suspected drug dealers under the guise of police investigations.  The four-person crew staged phony drug raids and automobile stops of suspected dealers, threatened them with arrest, then kept the drugs, cash, or weapons they discovered. 

All four were arrested and charged in federal court.  Hicks fled Chicago in June 2003 while free on bond and awaiting trial.  He remained a fugitive until his arrest in Detroit, Mich., in September 2017.

A jury last year convicted Hicks, also known as “David Rose,” 71, on all eight counts against him, including conspiracy to commit racketeering; drug conspiracy; possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute; carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; theft of government funds; and failure to appear for a judicial proceeding.  U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow imposed the 13-year sentence after a hearing in federal court in Chicago.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan; U.S. Marshals Service; Detroit, Mich., Police Department; Chicago Police Department; Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department; Bolingbrook Police Department; and Alsip Police Department.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Morris Pasqual and Grayson Walker.

Hicks served as a Chicago Police officer from 1970 to 2000, ultimately attaining the rank of sergeant.  Evidence at trial revealed that from the early 1990s to 2001, Hicks and his robbery crew stole thousands of dollars in cash, multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, hundreds of pounds of marijuana, and several firearms.

The three other crew members were also convicted.  They were previously sentenced to prison terms: LARRY HARGROVE, a former Chicago Police sergeant, was sentenced to 13 years; MATTHEW L. MORAN, a former employee of the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, was sentenced to seven years and ten months; and LAWRENCE W. KNITTER, a former civilian CPD electrical mechanic, was sentenced to nine years and four months.