CCSAO Announces Official Misconduct Charge Filed Against Bellwood Police Officer
CHICAGO – A Bellwood Police Officer has been charged with a felony count of official misconduct for allegedly sharing confidential law enforcement information with an acquaintance who was a suspect in a crime, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Saturday.
The CCSAO’s Law Enforcement Review Unit (LERU) approved a charge of official misconduct, a class 3 felony that is punishable up to 5 years in prison, against Michael Davis. Davis, 32, has served as a police officer with the Bellwood Police Department since January of 2025 and was arrested on Friday.
On Saturday, Davis appeared at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for his first court hearing on the charges and was released pretrial. A judge granted the CCSAO’s request for conditions of his release, including that Davis surrender his FOID card and any firearms in his possession. His next court date is set for July 21 in Maywood.
“No one is above the law, and my office will continue to hold police officers to the highest ethical and professional standards,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke. “Officers who take an oath to serve the public must be held accountable when they violate that trust and abuse the tremendous responsibility that comes with it. The prosecutors in our Law Enforcement Review Unit are committed to protecting the public’s trust in law enforcement.”
According to prosecutors, an investigation by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) found that Davis texted images from the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS), a statewide database that details law enforcement investigations, to an acquaintance who had allegedly been involved in an incident in River Forest on July 5, 2025.
The acquaintance was under investigation for fleeing River Forest Police Officers after an attempted traffic stop. As an officer followed the acquaintance in an unmarked River Forest Police vehicle, shots were fired at that officer’s vehicle, according to a proffer presented in court on Saturday.
Davis, according to the proffer, sent the acquaintance images from the LEADS database related to the vehicle used in the River Forest incident. Prosecutors allege Davis also texted the acquaintance, “Put that car in a garage or something & I would strongly advise to sell it so that you can get rid of those plates.”
Through the course of their investigation, CCSO investigators determined that Davis used his personal number to send the messages and corroborated the time that the messages from that number were sent with metadata from the shared images.
The investigation was conducted by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, and the case will be prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas Fryska of the CCSAO’s LERU Unit.
The LERU Unit is responsible for reviewing investigations related to police misconduct, making charging decisions on those cases and prosecuting police officers who are charged with criminal offenses.