Vol. 75/No. 16      April 25, 2011

A Cook County judge found Mandarino guilty of aggravated battery and official misconduct March 23.

“Any rational analysis [of the video] will show that the conduct of the defendant was wrong, just plain wrong, unprovoked, unnecessary and unacceptable,” said Judge Thomas Fecarotta Jr. in issuing the verdict. “There’s no doubt that the baton was used as a club with full force, striking Mr. Bell in the head, the back, the forearms. If you look at the video, Mr. Bell is on all fours. That’s when the beating started.”

On March 28, 2010, Bell, a member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, and his friend Nolan Stalbaum were driving to Bell’s home on their way back from a union gathering. They were being tailed by Mandarino, who pulled up behind them in the driveway of Bell’s home. Mandarino claims he thought they were drunk and initiated his pursuit after Bell allegedly “squealed his tires.”

The cop ordered Bell, the driver, out of his car and told him to kneel on the ground. Bell complied.

Stalbaum got out of the car evidently to see what was going on and Mandarino ordered him to get back in. When Stalbaum did not move fast enough for the cop, Mandarino Tasered him.

The cop then ordered Bell to lie face down on the ground. When Bell, who was on all fours, questioned why he was being treated this way in front of his own house, Mandarino began beating him, striking him 15 times with the metal baton. The beating only stopped when Bell’s brother Stacey emerged from the house to see what the commotion was about.

Bell was left with a concussion and multiple bruises and ultimately needed seven stitches to close a gash on his ear.

The judge’s contempt of working people also came through the trial. “I’m not saying Mr. Bell and Mr. Stalbaum are upstanding citizens,” the judge said as he read his verdict, claiming the workers were probably not telling the whole truth and that Bell was “probably driving drunk.”

“I just want justice to be served the right way,” said Bell outside the courthouse on the opening day of the trial, March 8. “I think my civil rights have been violated, and it was the wrong thing for him to do.”

Mandarino is scheduled to be sentenced April 25.
 
 
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