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5 Cases for the Skills Building Interview Assignment
These cases are altered from the ones in the 14th edition. The basic description and characters are
the same. Students become familiar with versions used over a number of semesters so it is wise
to alter them from time to time.
Case #1: Police Abuse
On July 21 at 5:30 a.m., Martin Luther Johnson was arrested by two Chicago police officers
while he was walking and playing with his dog in Lincoln Park. The officers placed him in their
patrol car, drove around the area for 15 minutes, and finally allowed him to call Lt. Sean Boston
at the Lincoln Park Police Station. He was released upon Lt. Boston’s insistence.
A hearing has been held, and officers April Summers and Mark Winters, the first a rookie
and the second with four years of experience, have been suspended without pay, Summers for 15
days and Winters for 30 days. Johnson considers this a travesty of justice and is pressing
criminal charges. He is charging Winters with assault and battery, false imprisonment, and
violation of his civil rights and Summers with being an accessory before the fact. He said he was
“roughed up,” threatened with bodily harm, and profiled because of his ethnicity.
Martin Luther Johnson said he was walking his Chocolate Lab Cinnamon through
Lincoln Park near his home and throwing a tennis ball to her. He walks his dog early in the
morning to avoid the early rush hour traffic and late afternoon crowds in the park. A Chicago
patrol car passed him going in the opposite direction, made a quick U-turn, pulled up behind
him, and followed him for about one hundred yards before its lights started flashing and siren
started wailing. He continued to walk his dog because he assumed there might be an emergency
in one of the large homes that surround the park.
Officer Winters got out of the patrol car, walked slowly toward him, pulled out his
service weapon, and yelled, “Stop where you are and get on the ground with your hands behind
your head!” The yelling and appearance of an angry patrolman frightened him and his dog. He
knelt down and started lowering himself to the ground while trying to attach a leash to his dog.
He tried to ask what was going on, but Winters grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed his
face into the gravel walk way. Officer Summers approached from the other side with a shotgun
aimed at his head. He again tried to ask why he was being arrested and asked Winters to stop
pushing his face into the walkway. Winters took out his club and threatened to hit him. When he