A Chicago police officer assigned to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's security detail was arrested and charged with domestic battery on Monday, according to documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates.
Officer Marni Washington, 50, was charged with one misdemeanor count of domestic battery, court documents show. A judge also granted an order of protection against Washington on Monday, according to those records, which did not disclose the name of the individual who filed for the order. Washington's bond was set at $10,000 and she was released from police custody that same day.
Details of the incident that resulted in Washington's arrest were not immediately available. Chicago police confirmed that Washington was a part of Lightfoot's security team, but it was not clear if she remained on the mayor's protective detail as of Wednesday afternoon.
Lightfoot's office did not immediately respond to request for comment, but Lightfoot did address the matter in an unrelated press conference Wednesday.
"The process will be a process that’s followed," she said. "It’s a longstanding CPD protocol, it’s a person I know, that I care and value, but the process is going to have to play out in the normal course."
Washington has been a member of the Chicago Police Department since December 2001, according to public records, and earns a salary of $107,790 as a "security specialist."
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In her time with CPD, Washington has received three complaints, one of which was related to a domestic altercation in 2002, according to the Citizens Police Data Project, which tracks information on police misconduct in Chicago.
Lightfoot's security detail came under scrutiny in May when she reversed decades of tradition by revamping the mayoral CPD bodyguard unit. The newly-elected mayor added federal marshals and members of other agencies outside Chicago to her protective detail, reportedly headed by former U.S. Marshal Jim Smith.
Lightfoot herself is a former federal prosecutor who served as president of the Chicago Police Board and authored a scathing 2016 report on police accountability.
Washington was next scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. on July 29, court records show.
