On March 9th Interim Police Chief Thomas Petrilli spoke briefly about an incident that occurred at the Red Lion bar in Champaign, Illinois which left a young woman injured and unconscious on the pavement outside of the bar. Petrilli said “it was a rather minor incident” and that “something blew it out of proportion” (see article and video here).
Check CU requested correspondence on the incident from the City of Champaign. The records show that about twenty Champaign City Officials convened a meeting of the “Community Safety and Wellness Committee” on March 7th, and that their agenda contained the item, “Red Lion Major Incident”.
The City also provided over four hundred pages of emails showing City Officials conferring on the incident and the arrangement of a “Major Incident Review”. The emails contain the phrase “major incident” sixty four times.
On March 6th, less than 36 hours after the altercation at the Red Lion, Deputy City Manager Matt Roschley sent the following email to several staff members:
“CPD is probably already on this, but from the sound of it we need to pull video immediately and get them in for a major incident review ASAP.
Miranda, would you be able to take lead in scheduling that and timing it with when we have all the relevant info from CPD?
Copying Mayor Feinen here so she is aware.
MR”
The emails also show several inquiries from members of the press, as well as emails from concerned residents.
451 pages of City of Champaign email correspondence in regards to the Red Lion incident, as well as the March 7th Community Safety and Wellness Committee agenda, can be viewed below (click images for full PDF’s).
