Bellwood Officer Charged With Sharing Confidential LEADS Records With Suspect
Prosecutors say metadata plus phone records tie the images to his phone, indicating possible misuse of Bellwood police access to a statewide law-enforcement database.
Overview
- Michael Davis, 32, was arrested and charged with one count of felony official misconduct and appeared in court Saturday after prosecutors say he sent LEADS images to an acquaintance under investigation.
- Prosecutors say investigators executing a warrant on the BMW owner’s phone found photographs and texts from a LEADS record that were labeled as coming from “Mikey Davis.”
- Phone records and image metadata, prosecutors allege, place the transmissions at or near the Bellwood Police Department and tie the sending phone number to Davis while he was on duty.
- A judge released Davis pretrial with conditions that require him to surrender his FOID card and any firearms, and his next court date is set for July 21 in Maywood; the misconduct charge carries up to five years in prison.
- The case highlights legal protections for LEADS, the statewide confidential law-enforcement database, and signals prosecutors’ intent to hold officers to professional standards when sensitive investigative data is disclosed.