Ex-Chicago Heights Park District police chief found not guilty of sharing secretly recorded pornographic image

CHICAGO - The former chief of a south suburban park district police force has been found not guilty of charges that he shared images of himself having sex with a woman whom he secretly filmed in his South Loop apartment.

Christian Daigre, who was chief of the Chicago Heights Park District police department, was acquitted in a bench trial before Judge Alfredo Maldonado.

Maldonado also found Daigre not guilty of charges that he threatened a witness in the case— Daigre’s predecessor as chief, Jose Maldonado, who was suspended after a 2016 drunken driving arrest.

Maldonado, who testified at Daigre’s trial, claimed he received text messages containing images that Daigre recorded with a hidden camera in the bedroom of his apartment.

After the judge rendered his verdict, prosecutors dropped charges in a case involving images of a second woman. Prosecutors had previously dismissed a case involving a third woman.

The verdict ends a years-long courtroom drama for Daigre and the Chicago Heights Park District force that began in 2016. That year, Jose Maldonado, then chief of the park district police department, was charged with DUI after the Illinois State Police stopped his car after seeing him drive in reverse up a closed entrance ramp on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

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Two years later, Maldonado was charged with flashing his badge at police in Midlothian and claiming to be chief of the park district police department, though he was suspended at the time because of the DUI charges.

Charges in both the DUI and impersonating an officer cases were eventually dropped.

Later that year, Maldonado presented police with sexual images he claimed Daigre texted to him in 2016 when Maldonado would have been Daigre’s boss at the Park District Police Department.

Daigre was charged with several counts of dissemination of a private sexual image without consent. He was also charged with threatening Maldonado for reporting the images to authorities.

Daigre’s alleged victims claimed they had consensual sexual encounters with him, but weren’t aware they were being recorded by a camera.

Daigre initially was also charged with cocaine possession after Chicago police found two small baggies of the suspected drug in the apartment while searching for hidden cameras. Those charges were dropped after a judge ruled the search was carried out unlawfully.

In a lawsuit that one of the victims filed in 2019, Daigre was accused of taking women out on dates in Chicago Heights Park District vehicles and sometimes bringing them to the station.

The woman claimed Daigre sent images of her to several members of the park district police force, including Maldonado. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2021.

Daigre’s lawyer declined to comment on Monday’s not guilty verdict.