A settlement agreement between the village and a resident who accused a Forest Park police officer of rape has been temporarily stalled over a language dispute.
Liz Mazur, one of the attorneys listed for the unnamed woman, said the two parties were having trouble agreeing on wording for the settlement. They will go back to the judge on Oct. 11, she said, for a decision on phrasing.
The civil lawsuit alleged that on Sept. 2, 2016, Forest Park Police Officer Roberto Salas raped the 47-year-old woman in her home. The suit states that Salas was on duty and in full uniform at the time of the assault.
Salas was initially fired from the Forest Park Police Department on Nov. 30, 2016, but was re-instated at the end of August after Illinois State Police announced they had found nothing in their investigation that would lead to criminal charges against him. Salas then resigned from the department.
Forest Park police had previously responded to the woman’s residence for calls of domestic abuse. In late August, according to the suit, the woman got a two-year “protective order” and her husband was allowed to gather his belongings from the couple’s home — under police supervision — on Aug. 30. Salas was one of two officers present that day.
Salas, the suit claims, stayed with the woman as her husband gathered his effects and gave her his business card and “invited her to contact him anytime if she ever needed help with anything, or even if she just needed a cup of coffee.”
The woman texted Salas the next day to “get together with him” and Salas said he would stop by. The next day, the suit says, Salas came by her home, was let inside by the woman and he then “proceeded to sexually assault” her before leaving after getting a call on his police radio.
Salas, in his response to the lawsuit, denied sexually assaulting the woman.
The settlement agreement must be signed by both parties no later than Oct. 13.
