Vol. 2, Issue 24: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Fallout from the Watts Scandal
In the first fallout for police brass accused of protecting Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his South Side extortion racket, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle fired her director of homeland security, WBEZ reported.
Shannon Spaulding (Invisible Institute)
While Preckwinkle declined to comment, sources told WBEZ that she dismissed Ernest Brown, director of homeland security and emergency management, last month after reading an account detailing how the code of silence shielded corrupt officers who worked under Brown in the Chicago Police Department’s Public Housing Section.
The Watts extortion ring was one of at least three criminal enterprises operating within the Public Housing Section that were investigated and prosecuted.
“Under the leadership of Brown, some of the most abusive officers operated with complete impunity,” Jamie Kalven of the Invisible Institute told WBEZ. Kalven described the Watts operation and its cover-up by CPD in a four-part series published in The Intercept.
Shannon Spalding, an officer who served under Brown and investigated Watts, accused Brown of blowing her cover, according to Kalven. Spalding and Officer Daniel Echeverria were recently awarded $2 million in a whistleblower lawsuit in which they charged CPD leadership with retaliating against them for assisting an FBI investigation into Watts. Brown denied participating in a cover-up, WBEZ reported.
PETITION FOR SPECIAL MASTER: On Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Steven Watkins heard a petition from Jamie Kalven and the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago seeking the appointment of a special master to review claims from individuals who say they were framed by Ronald Watts and his team.
Watkins set a January 18 hearing for the petitioners and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to return with a detailed plan outlining how the special master would operate.
In an editorial last week, the Chicago Sun-Times endorsed the call for a special master. “As we learned from an earlier probe into dozens of old cases handled by another bad cop, Cmdr. Jon Burge, this would be the best way to get to the bottom of the Watts scandal,” the Sun-Times wrote.
Other key issues include determining the full scope of the Watts crew’s criminal activity—particularly the role of several officers who remain on the force—and uncovering the cover-up that protected Watts, which allegedly involved high-level CPD supervisors, Kalven stated.
A side note: Kalven’s petition references an interview in which federal agents and Chicago officers spoke with Wilbert Moore, who “described Watts’ tactical team’s role in criminal activity” and admitted to making payments to Watts or his associates. According to a source in The Intercept, Moore, known as “Big Shorty,” was killed days after he was seen telling Watts that he intended to inform federal authorities about the extortion racket. Six alleged leaders of the Hobo “supergang” are currently on trial for Moore’s murder, along with eight others.
The petition cites statements by federal prosecutors, FBI and ATF documents, and sworn testimony from several Chicago officers, all suggesting that Watts and his team repeatedly framed individuals who refused to cooperate with their extortion racket. It also lists six known cases in which individuals were wrongfully convicted as a result of being framed.
“The settlement of the whistleblower suit left many critically important issues unresolved,” Kalven said. “The most urgent is to identify those who suffered wrongful conviction as a result of false arrest by these rogue officers.”
Two years after Laquan McDonald was shot and killed in Chicago, Fault Lines investigates the role of the police union contract in creating a code of silence among police. Click the photo to see the full video from Al Jazeera.
IN THE NEWS:
Foxx Promises Reforms: Newly elected Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told the Chicago Tribune that she will not wait for the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) to complete inquiries into police shootings before initiating her own parallel investigations.
She named Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan Jr. to reorganize the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which investigates possible wrongful convictions, calling it “a top priority.” Sullivan, who led the widely praised conviction review unit for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, “has real concerns about the way in which our unit has been comprised,” Foxx said.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Foxx backed the elimination of the cash-bond system, calling it unfair to the poor. She also pledged to increase transparency by opening the office’s case management database to public view.
Kajuan Raye Case: The family of Kajuan Raye called for a criminal investigation into his killing after revelations that the officer who shot him last month, Sgt. John Poulos, was previously sued for fatally shooting another man in 2013. In both cases, Poulos claimed he saw what could have been a weapon in his victim’s hand; in neither case was a weapon found.
WBEZ reported that Poulos was disciplined for being “inattentive to duty” after inappropriately firing his gun during a foot chase in 2012 and was suspended earlier for excessive force. More serious attention to his prior infractions might have prevented two subsequent deaths, said Craig Futterman of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson stripped Poulos of his gun and badge following Raye’s death on November 23.
Daley Sued: Attorney Flint Taylor said he hopes to take former Mayor Richard Daley’s deposition “as soon as possible” after a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit can proceed charging Daley with ignoring evidence that detectives under Cmdr. Jon Burge tortured Black suspects into false confessions, the Chicago Tribune reports.
In two previous lawsuits where Daley was ordered to give depositions over torture claims, the city settled out of court before the former mayor testified. In 2008, the Chicago Reader compiled a backgrounder detailing Daley’s involvement in the Burge scandal based on extensive reporting by journalist John Conroy.
Tearing Down Jails: County officials announced a plan to demolish three buildings in the Cook County Jail complex. The jail population has declined to about 8,000 inmates due to efforts to divert nonviolent defendants and the mentally ill to community programs or electronic monitoring. The demolition will save the county $3 million annually in operating costs and $188 million in capital costs over the next decade.
Additionally, the Illinois Department of Corrections announced the final closure of Stateville Correctional Center’s F House, which featured a “roundhouse” design that created a “chaotic environment” considered inhumane by advocates, the Tribune reported. Governor Bruce Rauner said the closure is part of his administration’s commitment to “reform our broken criminal justice system to balance punishment with rehabilitation, reduce crime overall, safely reduce our prison population, lower recidivism, and help those who have paid for their crime find a positive path in life after serving their time.”
Police Misconduct Videos to Remain Online: In its final days, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) has reversed plans to remove videos of serious police incidents from its web portal after six months, WBEZ reports. In the portal’s first three months, videos have been viewed 1.6 million times, according to a report from the mayor’s office.
Tribune Sues: CPD Over Laquan McDonald Emails: The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit Monday against the Chicago Police Department, alleging that CPD has failed to release emails requested in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request nearly a year ago.
In March, CPD told the Tribune it would provide 375 emails related to the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, but the department never followed through, according to the lawsuit.