Chicago Cop Fired Over Work as Bar Bouncer, 'Lube Wrestler'

Jonathan Maynard

A gay Chicago police officer has been fired for moonlighting as a bouncer and “lube wrestling” participant in nightclubs — and he’s planning to sue the city in hopes of being reinstated to the force.

Jonathan Maynard was on convalescent-duty status, recovering from injuries, when he worked at two gay clubs, Hydrate Nightclub Chicago and Halsted’s Bar and Grill, between June 2008 and October 2009, as a substitute bouncer, and when he took part in a “lube wrestling” event at Hydrate in November 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He broke department rules against working in a liquor establishment, and working at all, while on his leave, the Chicago Police Board decided last month. He was a “flagrant abuser” of departmental policies, the board ruled.

Maynard, however, told the Sun-Times this week that officers with “much more serious” infractions have been allowed to keep their jobs. “I have been singled out,” he said. He also said he has been harassed by fellow cops for being gay.

He said his work at the clubs was unpaid, a favor to management. One executive of the clubs, Maynard’s former boyfriend, presented records to the police board indicating he had been paid, but Maynard said his ex has a grudge against him and falsified the records. He also claimed a witness who videotaped the wrestling has an “ax to grind,” arising from a landlord-tenant dispute in a building owned by Maynard’s grandmother.

Maynard, 34, has been on the police force for 11 years. He plans to file suit to get his job back, he told the newspaper.