An off duty police officer is caught on tape beating a bartender who refuse to serve him.
Chicago-- A Chicago police officer has been charged with a felony after allegedly beating a bartender when she refused to serve him alcohol.
A surveillance camera videotaped the beating.
The bartender, Karolina said, "I just refused serving him because he got too stupid and too drunk."
The incident happened at Jesse's Shortshop Inn in Chicago.
She says when she refused to serve more alcohol to Anthony Abbate, he went behind the bar, through her to the ground, punched her repeatedly and also kicked her.
A video camera, the owner recently installed for security, caught the incident on tape.
"On the tape, I see myself and him, in my head, i just only see him hitting me." Karolina said. She had never met Abbate before and didn't know he was an off duty Chicago police officer.
Prosecutors say Abbate is much larger than Karolina. He is six feet one and 250 pounds and she is five feet four and 115 pounds.
She says she had bruises on her arms, ribcage and legs.
"I just couldn't believe that this large man, who is a Chicago police officer, who the Chicago police department gives a gun and a badge to and says go out and protect people, could engage in that type of conduct," Karolina said.
Abbate, a twelve year veteran of the Chicago police department has been stripped of his police powers and the department is moving to have him fired .
After the evidence on the video tape, Abbate's charges were upgraded from misdemeanor battery to a felony.
Court records show Abbate does not have a clean record he was arrested for DUI in 1992. Also, he was named in a federal lawsuit for beating a man under arrest, who later died, in 1999.
SOURCE Video 
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