Vol. 2, Issue 63: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Oversight Commission Proposed
Elected district council members would select a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to oversee the Chicago Police Department under a proposal by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (Chicago Tribune).
The commission would represent the third and final element—along with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (IGPS)—in the oversight structure recommended by Mayor Emanuel’s Police Accountability Task Force in April 2016.
The seven-member commission would recommend candidates for police superintendent and the police board, hire the chief administrator of COPA (subject to City Council approval), and have the final say on department policy decisions. The commission would have the power to remove the superintendent or COPA administrator “for cause,” though the City Council could overturn a dismissal by a two-thirds vote (Chicago Tribune).
Aldermen Roderick Sawyer (6th) and Harry Osterman (48th) have agreed to sponsor GAPA’s ordinance.
When COPA and the IGPS were established in October 2016, GAPA called on Mayor Emanuel to postpone action on a community oversight board until it could hold community hearings on the subject. Left open was the crucial question of how COPA’s administrator would be selected—whether by the mayor or through a community-driven process, as recommended by the mayor’s task force.
Under the new proposal, three-member district councils would be elected in each of the city’s 22 police districts. They would be tasked with improving police-community relations and selecting the seven commission members.
Emanuel ally Alderman Ariel Reboyras (30th), chair of the council’s public safety committee, rejected the proposal to give the commission power to fire the police superintendent. “That is not something I can support,” he said (Chicago Sun-Times).
The Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement calling the proposal “ludicrous.”
Proponents of an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council argued that the proposal fell far short of their demand for community control of police. “This is just another bureaucratic layer,” said Frank Chapman. “It’s not democratic control.”
Asked about the ordinance, Mayor Emanuel “threw up a cautionary flag,” while Superintendent Eddie Johnson was “flat-out against the idea” of creating a commission empowered to set policy for the department, Chicago Sun-Times reported. “They don’t have the professional acumen to be able to develop policy and strategy for the police department,” Johnson said. “Just to take a person from off the street and let them develop policy for a police department is just crazy to me” (Chicago Sun-Times).
“He’s wrong,” said Sam Walker, a police accountability expert at the University of Nebraska who consulted on the ordinance. “That’s old-fashioned policing—‘we’ll decide what we want to do, and you just sit there and take it.’ It’s insulting.”
Walker told View From the Ground that there is “a growing consensus across the country that it is important to have citizen input into police policy, and President Obama’s Task Force [on 21st Century Policing] was the most prominent voice in that direction. Giving people who are policed a voice helps build confidence and trust that the police are reflecting their interests and priorities.”
He emphasized the importance of the provision in the ordinance for an executive director and a 15-member staff. “They can develop expertise on particular subjects, look around the country and find out what kind of policies and programs appear to be effective, look at evaluations of programs, so the commission’s decisions will be fully informed.”
The Chicago Tribune editorial board called the proposal “an unambiguous vote of no confidence in politicians’ stewardship” of the police department and its oversight apparatus and “a reminder that [politicians have] promised to overhaul the police accountability system, and that the job isn’t finished.”
It urged aldermen to “view the ordinance as a starting point” and insisted that hearings be held on the proposal—not to “shrug helplessly when the usual suspects try to bury it in committee” and then “wait for City Hall to draft its own ordinance and call it a compromise” (Chicago Tribune).
GAUGHAN HOLDS ACTIVIST IN CONTEMPT
Judge Vincent Gaughan ordered a young Black activist jailed for contempt of court for uttering a one-word interjection during a hearing on March 8. Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) organizer Tyrone Williams is being held without bond (Chicago Reader).
Attorneys filed a motion for bond on Monday, and a hearing is set for Thursday, March 15, at 9 a.m., said Frank Chapman of CAARPR.
Along with a couple dozen fellow activists, Williams was in Gaughan’s courtroom to observe a hearing for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with murder in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Williams reacted by saying, “What?” in a tone of incredulity after Gaughan ordered a defendant in another case jailed for contempt.
That defendant had been told to leave the courtroom by a bailiff after standing up to see what was happening. When his case was called, Gaughan ordered bailiffs to bring him back. In the midst of a lecture by Gaughan about disrespecting the court, the man raised his hand several times to try to respond. Gaughan told him to put his hand down, and when he persisted, ordered him jailed for contempt.
Gaughan then asked who had spoken, and Williams stood and said, “I did.” Williams was ordered to approach the bench, and Gaughan directed the bailiff to arrest him.
“The judge charged Tyrone with contempt, but it is Judge Gaughan who is in contempt of the people of this state,” Chapman said (CAARPR). “It’s flabbergasting that he can throw someone in jail simply on a whim.”
Alexa Van Brunt of Northwestern’s MacArthur Justice Center told the Chicago Reader that Gaughan’s action raises the question of whether he is using his judicial discretion appropriately.
Last year, Gaughan ordered a man held in contempt for snapping his fingers in court. That individual was released on $40,000 bond and later sentenced to probation. Williams, however, has been ordered held without bond.
Chapman stated that the alliance is concerned that Williams will lose his job.
In another development in the Van Dyke case, eight media outlets have filed a motion for Gaughan to unseal court filings that would normally be routinely made public (Chicago Tribune). A hearing on the motion is scheduled for March 28 at 9 a.m.
DISCIPLINARY ACTION FALLS THROUGH THE CRACKS
Sgt. John Poulos, currently facing lawsuits over two separate incidents in which he fatally shot unarmed Black men, is back on paid desk duty after the Chicago Police Board voted to dismiss disciplinary charges against him that date back as far as 17 years (Chicago Tribune).
Voting unanimously, the board found that the decade-long delay between the completion of an internal affairs investigation and the filing of charges by Superintendent Eddie Johnson violated department policy calling for fairness and promptness in investigations (Chicago Police Board).
Poulos was charged with lying on his application to join the department in 2000 by concealing an earlier arrest on misdemeanor charges of “tampering with a vehicle” and with violating department policy by holding part ownership in an establishment that serves alcohol in 2003. Poulos was on medical leave from 2002 to 2010.
An investigation by the Internal Affairs Division was concluded in 2007, but Johnson stated that he believed the department’s policy at the time was not to file charges against an officer who was on leave. He could not explain why charges were not filed when Poulos returned to active duty in 2010. Poulos received a merit promotion to sergeant in 2016.
It was not until last summer that Johnson recommended Poulos be fired based on the earlier charges. That decision came after Poulos shot and killed 19-year-old Kajuan Raye in November 2016 following a foot chase. Poulos claimed he believed Raye had turned and pointed a gun at him, but no weapon was recovered. Raye was shot in the back. Poulos was placed on desk duty after the shooting and suspended without pay after Johnson filed charges last summer.
The Chicago Tribune reported in December 2016 that charges against Poulos for violating the department’s ban on owning liquor-serving establishments “fell through the cracks” (Chicago Tribune), and the Department of Justice criticized Poulos’ promotion to sergeant “despite an open investigation” as well as “reckless tactics” by Poulos in the 2013 fatal shooting of Ricky Rozelle (Department of Justice).
Inspector General Joe Ferguson is investigating the lengthy delay in pursuing discipline against Poulos, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The Independent Police Review Authority ruled in 2015 that the shooting of Rozelle was justified. Rozelle’s family has called for a review of that investigation (Better Government Association). The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is currently investigating the shooting of Raye.
BOND REFORM AND ELECTRONIC MONITORING
Cook County Jail’s population dropped by 1,400 to approximately 6,100 in the first three months of a new order mandating that bail be set at affordable levels, but that decrease has stalled, according to a new report from the Coalition to End Money Bond (CEMB).
The use of cash bonds fell by nearly half, but nearly half of all cash bonds ordered were in amounts higher than what defendants said they could afford, in violation of a general order issued by Chief Judge Timothy Evans that went into effect in September. Adherence to the new order varied widely by judge, according to the report.
More than 3,000 people remain in jail because they cannot afford to make bail, according to CEMB, which calls for the complete elimination of cash bonds.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Tom Dart stated that his office would review orders assigning defendants to electronic monitoring, arguing that an increase in assigning individuals charged with gun possession to electronic monitoring threatened public safety. Judge Evans responded that judges do not release those deemed to pose a threat (Chicago Tribune).
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle argued that Dart’s own data show no increased safety threat, with no rise in felony gun charges since Evans’ order went into effect (Chicago Tribune; Injustice Watch).
A class-action lawsuit challenged Dart’s authority to conduct “administrative reviews” after a judge had set terms for a defendant’s release, arguing that he should be held in contempt for refusing to release individuals as ordered (Courthouse News Service).
Advocates maintain that Dart’s stance inappropriately treats electronic monitoring as a “soft” alternative to incarceration when it is actually another form of confinement (Chicago Reporter).
The number of people released on electronic monitoring has increased significantly in recent years as the condition has increasingly been applied to defendants facing low-level charges, said Sharlyn Grace of the Chicago Appleseed Fund.
Dart is overriding the informed decisions made by bond court judges “based on his personal feelings, and as he feels politics dictate,” wrote civil rights attorneys Alan Mills and Alexa Van Brunt. “His actions—willfully failing to obey judicial orders—have no place in a democratic society” (Chicago Tribune).
CARJACKING BILL “CASTS WIDE NET”
The transportation committee of the Illinois House last week unanimously passed a bill touted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a response to an increase in carjackings (Illinois General Assembly; Chicago Tribune).
The bill does not, however, address the offense of vehicular hijacking. Rather, it lowers the standard for proving felony possession of a stolen vehicle by allowing a judge or jury to infer that a person “knows or recklessly disregards” that the vehicle has been stolen if the individual operates a vehicle “without the consent of the owner.” The statute being amended currently requires prosecutors to prove a defendant’s knowledge that the vehicle was stolen; without such proof, offenders are typically charged with misdemeanor trespass to a vehicle.
Emanuel stated that the new bill closes “a giant loophole” (Chicago Sun-Times), but Ben Ruddell of the ACLU told View From the Ground that if its intent is to target carjackers, it “casts a very wide net.” There were about 20,000 car thefts in Illinois last year, he said, most involving unoccupied, parked cars. That compares to approximately 967 carjackings in Chicago last year, up from 317 in 2015. “It boggles my mind how this is going to do anything about violent carjackings,” Ruddell said.
He noted that there has been no estimate of “how many more people will be incarcerated, how much longer their sentences will be, or what the costs to taxpayers will be” as a result of the proposed bill. “It’s terrible policy” at a time when the state’s prisons are already overcrowded, he said.
Proponents argue that the bill is modeled on a law passed by California in the 1960s. However, today California cities have some of the nation’s highest car theft rates, far higher than Chicago’s, said Stephanie Kollmann, policy director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University.
She compared the bill to Emanuel’s successful push last year to increase penalties for gun possession. For both shootings and carjackings, nine out of ten cases in Chicago did not lead to an arrest last year. “Giving more felony convictions and prison years to a very broad group of people because police can’t identify the small number who are committing violent crime isn’t a public safety strategy,” she said.
MONITOR REPORTS PROGRESS, CHALLENGES ON STREET STOPS
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has “come a long way” in addressing civil rights concerns related to its stop-and-frisk practices, but Black individuals are still stopped at much higher rates than others, according to a new report by a court-appointed monitor (Chicago Sun-Times).
Arlander Keys, a retired magistrate judge appointed under an agreement between CPD and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), examined a sample of the 51,000 stops made by officers from July to December 2016 and found “an overwhelmingly large number of legitimate, lawful and justified stops” (ACLU).
However, 70% of those stopped were Black, 19% were Hispanic, and only 1.5% were white, he reported. Additionally, unjustified stops were more likely to occur in districts with predominantly African American populations. Keys estimated that 13 to 15% of stops were not legally justified, with the vast majority involving African Americans. Weapons were found in only 3.5% of frisks.
EMANUEL ORDERED TO TESTIFY
Cook County Judge James O’Hara ordered Mayor Rahm Emanuel to give a sworn deposition in the wrongful death lawsuits brought by the families of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones, who were fatally shot by Officer Robert Rialmo in December 2015 (Chicago Tribune).
Emanuel will face questions about the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) code of silence and use-of-force policies, as well as the behavior of the city’s attorneys. O’Hara denied a city attorney’s request that Emanuel’s testimony be limited to 15 minutes (Chicago Sun-Times).
In cases where mayors or former mayors have been ordered to give depositions, the city has settled lawsuits before the testimony was required. Emanuel was previously ordered to testify in a lawsuit brought by police whistleblowers who were punished for attempting to expose the corruption of Sgt. Ronald Watts. Former Mayor Richard Daley has also been ordered to testify in several lawsuits filed by torture victims of former Cmdr. Jon Burge.
Emanuel has reportedly set aside three hours on March 29 to be deposed. The deposition will be videotaped and admissible at trial (Chicago Sun-Times).
Earlier this month, attorneys for the LeGrier family asked O’Hara to sanction city lawyers for “contemptible behavior” after they questioned LeGrier’s mother about the circumstances of her son’s conception (Chicago Tribune). Late last year, the city backtracked after lawyers moved to sue LeGrier’s family (Chicago Tribune).
PROANO VERDICT REINSTATED
The Illinois Appellate Court ruled unanimously that Cook County Judge Elizabeth Budzinski erred when she reversed a verdict on a legal technicality after a jury found the city and Officer Marco Proano guilty of excessive force in the 2011 shooting of a Black teenager (Chicago Tribune). Last year, Proano was sentenced to five years in federal prison in another shooting incident.
PAROLE FOR JUVENILE LIFERS ADVOCATED
Eighty Illinois prisoners were resentenced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that sentencing minors to mandatory life without parole was unconstitutional. However, hundreds of others who were given long sentences without parole for serious crimes committed before they were 18 remain in the state’s prisons. Marshall T. Allen, a former juvenile lifer now working with Restore Justice Illinois, advocates for legislation that would reinstate limited parole opportunities for children facing sentences longer than ten years (Chicago Tribune).