CHICAGO – Chicago police adhere to a code of silence protecting fellow officers, a federal jury ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by a female bartender whose videotaped beating by a drunken off-duty officer went viral online.

The civil trial in federal court in Chicago was the first of its kind to focus almost wholly on the question of whether there is such an ingrained code – with most of the 2˝ weeks of testimony devoted to that question.

Jurors awarded $850,000 in damages to the bartender, Karolina Obrycka, who was beaten in February 2007 by Anthony Abbate, who was off-duty and admittedly drunk at the time. Surveillance video showed the hulking Abbate pushing Obrycka to the ground behind the bar at Jesse's Shortstop Inn, then repeatedly punching and kicking her.