A Chicago police officer is facing dismissal after he tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana just months after he was arrested for allegedly driving drunk and groping a woman at a bar on the Near North Side.
Officer Aramis Williams, 29, failed the drug test at police headquarters in Bronzeville on Jan. 17, 2024, according to disciplinary charges filed last month by Supt. Larry Snelling.
Williams is at least the fourth cop to face dismissal charges for failing a drug test since last October, according to records maintained by the Chicago Police Board. Earlier this year, another officer who tested positive for weed was allowed to keep his job after the board found he had unwittingly ingested the drug.
Williams failed the drug test four months after he was stripped of his policing powers following his arrest.
He was taken into custody around 5:20 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2023, when officers responded to a call of a sexual assault at The Hangge Uppe, an early morning bar located 14 W. Elm St. As Williams drove away, he was flagged as the man who had “aggressively” grabbed a woman’s breast, according to an arrest report.
After he was stopped and positively identified by the victim, Williams was taken to the Near North District, according to the report. He smelled strongly of alcohol and “displayed signs of impairment,” including “bloodshot eyes, slurred and stuttered speech” and failing into “random bursts of laughter.”
Williams failed a series of field sobriety tests and had a blood alcohol content more than double the legal limit, the report shows. He told officers that he had two guns in his car, where an open bottle of tequila was also recovered.
He was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery and drunken driving that were dropped that November, court records show. It’s unclear why. His attorney in the case wouldn’t comment.
Williams joined the police department in October 2018, according to state law enforcement records.
A police spokesperson said he remains relieved of his police powers and is assigned to the department’s alternate response section, which fields 311 calls and is staffed by cops with disciplinary problems and others not medically cleared for full duty.
He’s the subject of at least three open investigations, the spokesperson said.
At least three other officers face dismissal for their alleged drug use. Officer Thomas Raap tested positive for cocaine, while Officers David Gibson and Elmer Carrillo Jr. had positive marijuana tests.
Carrillo elected to take his case to the police board, which has already held an evidentiary hearing but has not made a ruling.
The other officers have chosen to take their cases to arbitration, a new avenue opened up through an acrimonious, yearslong court battle that has ground the board’s operations to a near halt.
Earlier this year, an appellate court panel ruled that officers facing allegations of serious misconduct could have their disciplinary cases heard by an arbitrator – but that those hearings must be held in public.
Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police has asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on the case, hoping they’ll allow for private proceedings.
As of Thursday, 22 of the 26 officers with charges pending have chosen to take their cases to arbitration, according to a Sun-Times analysis. Eight of those officers are accused of using deadly force.