Calling Leavitt's "VICTIM" accusers "liars," Judge Nicholas Ford ruled Park Ridge police commander Jason Leavitt was NOT GUILTY of the aggravated battery and official misconduct charges originally filed against him in 2010

Park Ridge Police Cmdr. Jason Leavitt was exonerated Wednesday of beating two 15-year-old suspects nearly 10 years ago.

Calling Leavitt's accusers "liars," Judge Nicholas Ford ruled that the police commander was not guilty of the aggravated battery and official misconduct charges originally filed against him in 2010.

"Jason and his wife, Nicole, are relieved [by the verdict]," said Thomas Needham, Leavitt's attorney, following the trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago. "As the judge said, it was a long time.

"This has been a 10-year cloud hanging over him that didn't need to be there," Needham added.

he trial, which was held over three days between May 26 and this week, wrapped Wednesday with the prosecution calling four witnesses — two of them the now-adult accusers — and the defense calling no witnesses. Leavitt, 44, did not testify.

The accusers, who were both students and hockey teammates at Wilmette's Loyola Academy 10 years ago, testified that they were beaten during the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2006, after shooting projectiles at passing cars on Touhy Avenue near Town of Maine Cemetery. The projectiles shattered a window on the car driven by Leavitt, who was off-duty at the time, as well as another vehicle, defense attorneys said, and the teens were ordered to pay restitution. A third teenage suspect was never charged.

CLICK FOR MORE