James E. O'Grady (born 1929) is a former law enforcement official who served as Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department and Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois.
[3] After the resignation of James M. Rochford as Superintendent of Police, mayor Michael Bilandic appointed O'Grady as his replacement on April 10, 1978.
[2] Another controversy arose when the media reported that police officers were strip searching female motorists stopped for minor traffic offenses.
[4][5][6] O'Grady founded the private security firm Special Operations Associates (SOA), which he co-owned with James Dvorak, Daniel M. Davis, and Mike Caccitolo.
[5] Amid O'Grady's bid to be Cook County Sheriff, the firm was contracted to investigate the unsolved murder of Diane Masters, and uncovered evidence which pointed to her husband being responsible.
[2] O'Grady was, early in his tenure, a popular politician, speculated for a potential future run for Chicago mayor, County Board president, or governor.
[14] O'Grady ultimately had failed to live up to his campaign promises of disposing of politics and corruption in the Cook County Sheriff's Office, and had become unpopular among his constituents.
[7] In November 1989, the Chicago Tribune released a two-part series which alleged that, "Sheriff O'Grady has demanded thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from deputies and given sensitive law-enforcement jobs to political cronies.
"[7] The report alleged that at least four high ranking employees in the Sheriff's office, including Dvorak, ran political organizations which solicited contributions from their colleagues and subordinates.
[7][18] In early 1990, O'Grady and Dvorak were investigated by a federal grand jury for directing a $1.8 million contract to Home Incarceration Systems of Illinois (HISNI).
[7] HISNI was run by an attorney for Special Operations Associates Inc. (SOA), which was a private security firm co-owned by O'Grady and Dvorak with Daniel M.
[7] In August 1991, Davis was indicted for obstruction of justice for hiding a document which detailed a stock purchase arrangement between HISNI and SOA.
[7] In May 1992, James Novelli, who had been the chief investigator for the Sheriff's Merit Board, pled guilty to accepting bribes to rig test grades and to change applications for correction officer jobs.
[7] Prosecutors ultimately would file a document with the court that suggested that 1,500 applicants were given a free pass before taking the exam during O'Grady's tenure.
[7] In 1993, 1994 and 1996, Dvorak pleaded guilty to tax and bribery charges which stemmed from both from payoffs from organized crime and from a large scheme he and others operated during O'Grady's tenure which rigged hiring tests for unqualified applicants and placed more than twenty "ghost jobs" on the sheriff's payroll.
[7] Amid the 1990 reelection campaign, a Cook County correctional officer was shot and critically wounded while hanging signs for O'Grady's Democratic opponent Michael Sheahan outside of the South Side bar.
[8] Within the city of Chicago, O'Grady even trailed Harold Washington Party nominee Tommy Brewer, who was considered a political unknown.