Vol. 2, Issue 61: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Officers suspended in federal corruption probe
A sergeant and several officers from the Area Central gang unit have been suspended, and criminal charges are expected to result from a federal probe into allegations that they stole narcotics and cash from drug dealers (Chicago Tribune).
Video of a raid on one officer’s home, shot by a neighbor, showed federal agents in fatigues and helmets arriving in an armored vehicle, the Tribune reported.
According to the Tribune, the sergeant has been the subject of at least four lawsuits and 23 civilian complaints, including several for illegal arrests, civil rights violations, and improper use of a weapon. The only discipline the sergeant is known to have received was a reprimand for a “preventable traffic accident.”
In 2016, the city paid $40,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that the sergeant and other officers broke down the door of a woman’s North Lawndale home without a warrant. They then raided the apartment next door and seized drugs and thousands of dollars in cash. According to the lawsuit, the sergeant gave the woman $1,000 in cash from the search for her trouble.
The Tribune notes that police corruption is a longstanding issue, dating back at least to a police burglary ring in the 1960 Summerdale scandal and including the Austin Seven in the 1990s, Joseph Miedzianowski, the Special Operations Section, and tactical officers working under Sgt. Ronald Watts
COPA: NO EVIDENCE HIDDEN
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability issued a statement on its Facebook page calling allegations that the agency “hid evidence” related to its recommendation to terminate Officer Robert Rialmo for unjustified use of force in the 2015 shooting deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones “baseless and malicious” (COPA).
In a January 11 letter, Supt. Eddie Johnson accused COPA of withholding materials from the investigation and demanded “every document that is relevant to this investigation,” including “exhibits, witness testimony, videos, and expert reports” (Sun-Times). That development was reported one day after news broke that the Fraternal Order of Police was demanding the release of a report by a Boston police lieutenant hired as an “outside expert” in the investigation (Sun-Times).
According to COPA’s statement, the lieutenant consulted with investigators but never generated a report.
Johnson was given “all the information COPA relied upon to make our investigatory finding,” according to the agency (Sun-Times).
TWO MORE BURGE-RELATED EXONERATIONS
Murder charges were dropped against two men who claimed their confessions to a 1989 murder resulted from beatings at the hands of detectives associated with former Cmdr. Jon Burge. Kevin Bailey was released from Stateville Correctional Center after serving 28 years of an 80-year sentence, while Corey Batchelor was paroled in 2004 (Chicago Tribune).
Both men testified that they were beaten and choked when they maintained their innocence during police interrogations. Their confessions “were inconsistent with each other” and “inconsistent with the facts,” according to one of their attorneys. DNA evidence found at the scene of the murder excluded the two.
“The evidence against Batchelor and Bailey does not meet the burden [of proof] of beyond a reasonable doubt,” special prosecutor Robert Milan said in court. But the agreement between prosecutors and the two men bars them from seeking exoneration.
Burge was not directly involved in their interrogations.
Their agreement should not be viewed as an admission of guilt and does not prevent them from suing the city, police, or prosecutors, attorneys for the two men said.
DIVERSIFYING THE FORCE
CPD will hold another police exam on May 5, following two exams last year—the first time in recent memory that multiple exams were offered in a single year. Last year’s exams attracted over 22,000 applicants, and while department hiring is “two or three lists behind,” CPD wants to “make sure the lists are fresh,” said a department spokesperson (Sun-Times).
Online registration will be open throughout February.
Supt. Eddie Johnson announced the new exam at a graduation ceremony for 84 patrol officers, 72 sergeants, 18 lieutenants, and 11 field training officers. CPD now has 720 more officers than it did a year ago, despite 415 retirements during that period, according to a city spokesperson.
However, increasing African-American representation on the force may require more than stepped-up recruitment efforts, as sustained support is needed throughout the long, multi-step hiring process. African Americans now account for just 23 percent of CPD members, and only 17 percent of those hired last year were Black. Nearly half of African-American recruits dropped out or were rejected during the process (Chicago Reporter, Univision Chicago).
Observers note that the lengthy hiring process favors candidates from families with police officers, who are disproportionately white, while Latino candidates receive support from two Latin American police associations. Additionally, some recruitment criteria disproportionately impact Black applicants, such as credit scores, which tend to be lower in communities with high unemployment.
CPD HIRES CIVILIANS TO GUIDE REFORM
Supt. Eddie Johnson announced the hiring of three civilians to oversee reform, strategy, and finance, stating that a department that “never really embraced civilian experts” needs their assistance to bolster its capacity for long-term strategic development (Sun-Times).
Maurice Classen, a program officer at the MacArthur Foundation and a former Seattle prosecutor, will serve as director of strategy, responsible for implementing a strategic plan for the department. Christina Anderson of the Civil Consulting Alliance will become director of reform management, and Susie Park, a city budget liaison with CPD, will take on the role of deputy chief of finance.
Johnson acknowledged that Classen’s previous role on the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force—which found that “the community’s lack of trust in CPD is justified”—might generate “some resentment,” but he added, “That’s just something we’ll have to deal with.”
He also noted that police officers were the “main people that gave the recommendations and criticisms to the task force and the DOJ.”
MAN FALSELY LISTED ON GANG DATABASE RELEASED
Immigration officials released Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez, who was arrested last March due to his incorrect listing in CPD’s gang database, after he agreed to drop a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Wilmer had to trade away his civil rights case against ICE in exchange for his release,” said his attorney, Sheila Bedi.
In December, Catalan-Ramirez secured an agreement from CPD to remove his name from the gang database, where he had been listed as a member of two different gangs based on police stops in separate neighborhoods. CPD also agreed to provide federal authorities with a letter supporting Catalan-Ramirez’s application for a visa (Sun-Times).
A lawsuit against the city by another man detained by ICE due to erroneous inclusion in the gang database is still pending.
DRUG ARRESTS DOWN'; RACIAL DISPARITIES REMAIN
Drug arrests in Chicago are at their lowest levels in nearly 50 years, but they remain concentrated on the South and West Sides.
With penalties scaled back, marijuana arrests saw the most significant decline, dropping from 25,000 in 2007 to 3,200 last year. Narcotics arrests have also decreased, from 58,808 in 2000 to 11,417 last year. A CPD spokesperson attributed the decline to new strategies, including an expanded diversion program.
However, racial disparities persist, as neighborhood figures illustrate: in Lakeview, marijuana arrests fell from 198 a decade ago to just nine last year, while in Austin, they dropped from 2,754 in 2007 to 516 last year (WBEZ).
CITY ATTORNEYS DISCIPLINED
One city attorney has resigned, and two others have been suspended following continued sanctions against the law department for withholding evidence in civil lawsuits (Sun-Times).
Meanwhile, an attorney representing a family suing the city for wrongful death has asked a federal judge to remove three outside lawyers representing the city, including the former general counsel for the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and her partners.
Attorneys said an anonymous caller from “within COPA” informed them that former IPRA counsel Helen O’Shaughnessy was “intimately involved in the investigation” of the 2015 in-custody death of Heriberto Godinez Jr. and had allegedly attempted to steer the investigation in favor of the police. That makes O’Shaughnessy a potential witness, they argued (Sun-Times).
The Tribune reports that Liza Franklin, who oversaw 60 attorneys in the law department’s civil rights litigation division, has resigned. Assistant Corporation Counsels Scott Cohen and Bret Kabacinski were suspended without pay—Cohen for 30 days and Kabacinski for five.
Cohen allowed a police sergeant to testify that he had not been involved in litigation outside the current case, despite Cohen having previously represented him in an earlier lawsuit (Tribune).
VAN DYKE SUBPOENAS NEWSPAPERS
Attorneys for Officer Jason Van Dyke have subpoenaed three newspapers for copies of every story published on the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, aiming to support an expected motion for a change of venue in Van Dyke’s murder trial.
Judge Vincent Gaughan expressed skepticism about the subpoenas, and a media lawyer told the Chicago Tribune that the approach “seems like an imposition” since the information sought is already public (Chicago Tribune).
At The Intercept, Jamie Kalven recounts his experience as a journalist subpoenaed last year by Van Dyke’s attorneys and explores the implications of the ensuing legal controversy for press freedom (The Intercept).
The two months of litigation that preceded Gaughan’s ruling quashing the subpoena highlighted the dangers of a system in which “attorneys could routinely haul reporters into court and inflict comparable costs on them and their publications with no more showing of relevance than was made in this case,” Kalven writes.
However, the strong support from civil rights attorneys, media organizations, and others underscored the importance of free speech beyond strictly legal frameworks, Kalven argues. It also improved the chances that future journalists will be able to defend their rights—and that potential whistleblowers will feel safe reaching out to the press.
AG CANDIDATES BACK COMMUNITY LAWSUITS
Three candidates for attorney general—Sharon Fairley, Aaron Goldstein, and Nancy Rotering—stated that the consent decree being negotiated by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the city over police reform should include community groups and victims of police violence who have filed separate lawsuits (Chicago Reporter).
Other candidates have called for more investigations, statewide policies on use of force and police shootings, and the licensing of officers (WBEZ).
DEFENSE ATTORNEYS CHARGE COP’S FACEBOOK POSTS WERE RACIST X
A man facing drug and weapons charges was released in a plea deal with federal prosecutors after his attorneys alleged that a tactical officer involved in his arrest had posted white supremacist material on Facebook. The officer has denied that the posts were racist (Tribune).