A Chicago police officer was acquitted this week of writing a false report and providing false testimony about a gun seizure, but still faces firing for allegedly stealing money and drugs and lying about other gun seizures of fire.

Cook County Judge Ursula Walowski found Officer Daniel Fair not guilty Thursday of felony charges of official misconduct and obstruction of justice during a court proceeding.

case articulated on a street stop of a man named Rodney Westerfield on August 8, 2020, in the 11800 block of South Stewart Avenue.

Fair, 35, wrote in an arrest report that Westerfield threw a duffel bag at the front of her body when officers approached, prosecutors previously said. Fair claimed his partner found a Ruger MK III handgun in Westerfield’s pants before recovering a Taurus G2c handgun and a box of ammunition in the duffel bag.

But prosecutors said body camera footage showed Westerfield never adjusted the holster and that Fair actually took the Taurus from Westerfield’s “closed bag,” which had been taken before the other gun was found.

Fair offered a different story at a preliminary hearing later that month, prosecutors said. He claimed Westerfield fled the stop, leading to a pursuit that led to Fair taking him into custody and finding “a hard metal object” that had fallen to the ground.

Fair testified that he then recovered a Ruger MK3, the same type of gun he said his partner found, prosecutors said. But body camera footage showed the partner pushing the Ruger out of Westerfield’s pants, and it was only discovered after Westerfield was handcuffed and Fair found the other gun.

Prosecutors said a review of evidence shows Fair knew she was providing false accounts of the arrest and did so to obstruct Westerfield’s defense.

Fair’s lawyer, Tim Grace, previously said it was “more of a case where the officers’ testimony should have been a little more stringent.” Grace did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

On Aug. 20, 2021, more than a year after the arrest, Westerfield filed a motion to quash the arrest and suppress evidence that was “unlawfully seized,” court records show.

Westerfield eventually pleaded guilty in November to one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was sentenced to a year in prison, much of which was served in the Cook County Jail while awaiting trial.

Prosecutors later filed a petition to overturn the conviction in August 2023, citing the allegations and evidence against Fair. The motion was denied months later, and the case was dismissed.

Straight faces pulling

As the criminal case unfolded, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released a cursed report earlier this year, it accused Fair and three other Calumet District tactical officers of engaging in “substantial and irrefutable” misconduct.

In one case, Fair and Officer Kevin Taylor took cash and marijuana during a vehicle search, COPA said in the Jan. 26 report. GPS records showed they drove to the Fair block after the search, and the contraband was never inventoried.

Fair and Officer Jeffery Morrow also recovered a gun used in a Kentucky slaying and let the suspect go — part of an alleged pattern of lying about the source of guns they took off the street without making arrests.

If officers had searched his name in a law enforcement database, they would have discovered he had an active felony warrant, COPA said.

All four officers were interviewed by the FBI last year. COPA said Fair and Morrow admitted to “seizing firearms and filling out false reports,” and Taylor admitted he knew his co-workers submitted false documents. However, Officer Rupert Collins claimed he was unaware officers had covered up problematic gun seizures, COPA said.

Cook County prosecutors and the FBI declined to pursue, COPA said.

But COPA concluded the officers had engaged in a disturbing pattern of misconduct and called for their dismissal. On May 10, Chicago police suspect. Larry Snelling told COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten that he was setting the layoff process in motion.

Prosecutors tried supports their unfortunate criminal case against Fair by linking it to the wider “scheme” investigated by COPA. However, Judge Walowski rejected their bid to introduce “other crimes evidence” in the gun case.

The judge said those charges bear little resemblance to criminal charges and would likely have an unfair “prejudicial effect” on Fair’s case.

Fair previously served as a US Army specialist during Operation Enduring Freedom and joined the police department in 2017. He earns $102,870 annually.