CHICAGO, Illinois - July 14, 2008 - A Cook County judge has ruled that the Chicago Police Board made the correct decision in suspending - and not firing - an officer who was videotaped beating a 60-year-old man handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair.

Officer William Cozzi still faces criminal charges in federal court in the beating of Randle Miles on Aug. 2, 2005 at Norwegian American Hospital in Humboldt Park.

A hospital surveillance tape shows Cozzi hitting Randle Miles about 10 times, prosecutors said. Miles does not appear to resist, but he was charged with resisting arrest - a charge that was later dropped.

On Friday, Cook County Circuit Judge William Maki upheld the Chicago Police Board’s two-year, unpaid suspension of Cozzi, 51. In November, the Chicago Police Department had appealed the board’s suspension, asking the court to fire Cozzi.

Maki’s ruling said the superintendent’s motivation in seeking to reverse the police board "may be in response to any public disapproval or embarrassment directed towards the Chicago Police Department since the incident."

But the department failed to show the police board’s October 2007 decision was "arbitrary and unreasonable," Maki wrote.

Cozzi previously was charged in Cook County criminal court with misdemeanor battery. He pleaded guilty and got 18 months’ probation.

After new Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis learned of the case, he referred it to the FBI for possible federal prosecution. Weis was an FBI supervisor before joining the Chicago Police Department.

Cozzi was supposed to return to work in April after serving his suspension, but the department has refused to return him to active duty because of the federal case, which accuses him of violating Cozzi’s civil rights.