Vol. 2, Issue 42: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: The New FOP President
Racism is not an issue in the Chicago Police Department (CPD), according to newly elected Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President Kevin Graham, who also stated that he does not “know of any code of silence.”
In a wide-ranging podcast interview with The Daily Line, Graham rejected allegations of a cover-up by rank-and-file officers in the Laquan McDonald shooting. He also defended contract provisions that were characterized as problematic by the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force and the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation of CPD.
Graham stated that the union needs to improve its communication with the public and aldermen. Citing his years of experience as an officer in Uptown, he emphasized the need for more officers to walk regular beats and build stronger relationships with residents.
Last week, Graham’s comments also appeared to align with criticism by the ACLU regarding police supervisors allegedly setting illegal quotas for street stops. He described as “legally questionable” and “poor policy” a memo issued by a lieutenant in the Jefferson Park district that referenced “the agreed upon ‘one good stop’” per workday. Earlier this month, the civil liberties group raised concerns that a South Side commander’s memo instructing officers to make “ten documented traffic stops” during special “missions” may violate a state law prohibiting departments from requiring officers to issue a specific number of citations.
BURGE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR CHALLENGED
Civil rights lawyers criticized a Cook County judge for appointing a former assistant state’s attorney as special prosecutor in cases tied to disgraced former Commander Jon Burge. Attorneys from the People’s Law Office called on Judge Thomas Byrne to rescind his appointment of Robert Milan to replace special prosecutor Stuart Nuddleman in cases where new trials are being sought based on allegations of torture.
Milan previously served as a top aide to Richard Devine, who was Cook County State’s Attorney when many Burge cases were initially prosecuted. In 2002, former Criminal Division Presiding Judge Paul Biebel ruled that Devine and all prosecutors from his office had a conflict of interest in any case involving Burge.
The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board supported the call for a different appointment.
GLENN EVANS’ LAWSUIT AGAINST IPRA DISMISSED
A federal lawsuit filed by controversial Lieutenant Glenn Evans, alleging retaliation by the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), was dismissed last week when U.S. District Judge Manish Shah ruled that Evans’ claim was “not credible.”
Evans had alleged that an IPRA investigator—a former Chicago Police Department (CPD) employee whom Evans had charged with insubordination 15 years earlier—leaked DNA results indicating that a suspect’s DNA was found on Evans’ gun. Evans was acquitted in 2015 on criminal charges that he shoved his gun down Rickey Williams’ throat and pressed a Taser to his groin during questioning. WBEZ and a reporter who revealed the DNA results were previously dropped from Evans’ lawsuit.
Evans’ lawsuit further claimed that after he complained about the alleged leak, IPRA reopened an investigation into a 2011 complaint alleging that he broke another suspect’s nose while forcibly fingerprinting her. Judge Shah noted that there was no criminal prosecution in that case. IPRA recommended firing Evans in 2016, but the recommendation came after the statute of limitations had expired.
Evans’ attorney indicated the possibility of filing a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.
Evans served as a tactical lieutenant in 2011 when Superintendent Eddie Johnson was commander of the 6th District. The following year, he was promoted to commander by then-Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who described him as “the favorite among my favorites.” Evans was suspended in 2014 after being charged in the Williams case but was reinstated as a lieutenant last May. Since 2001, he has been named in at least 50 civilian complaints and was the subject of several lawsuits, some resulting in settlements totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
CPD WATCHLIST
Superintendent Eddie Johnson has referred to “1,400 individuals that drive this gun violence in this city,” stating that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is keeping tabs on them. However, CPD’s Strategic Subject List is “far broader and more extensive,” encompassing more than 398,000 names, The Chicago Sun-Times reports. According to the report, “nearly half the people at the top of the list have never been arrested for illegal gun possession,” and 20 of those deemed most at risk of being involved in a violent crime “have never been arrested either for guns or violence.”
The ACLU has called for greater transparency regarding the algorithm used to generate the database, a demand echoed by Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos, whose research “inspired” the list, according to the report. However, The Sun-Times notes that Papachristos “now distances himself from the way the police are using the Strategic Subject List in Chicago.”
Stephanie Kollman of Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center examines the data—of the 700,000 males in Chicago between the ages of 15 and 49, over 200,000 are on the list—and raises key concerns: how the list is used, how its accuracy is ensured, and with whom it is shared. She argues that the list is “often used in service of blame-shifting, get-tough rhetoric” by politicians who cut social services while advocating for increased incarceration. Public funds, she writes, should be used “to build up the people of Chicago, not the systems that surveil them.”
ESCALATING THE WAR ON DRUGS
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a directive overriding a 2013 memo that sought to limit the use of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, instead instructing federal prosecutors to pursue “the most serious” charges available—a reversal of bipartisan efforts to reduce incarceration levels.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration is proposing a 95% funding cut for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the agency responsible for directing drug prevention efforts.
A TEXAS CASE
A Texas jury last week rejected charges by the state bar association that a former prosecutor made false statements, concealed evidence, and obstructed justice in a 1992 death penalty trial. Maurice Possley reports for The Marshall Project on a case he first covered years ago for The Chicago Tribune—in which the conviction of a father for arson and murder in the deaths of his three daughters collapsed after his execution.
KALVEN WINS WATCHDOG AWARD
Jamie Kalven won the Chicago Headline Club’s Watchdog Award last week for the second consecutive year. The local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists recognized Kalven for The Code of Silence, a four-part series published in The Intercept.