Vol. 2, Issue 70: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: LeGrier Jury Verdict Overturned
Cook County Judge Rena Marie Van Tine announced a jury verdict awarding $1 million in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Quintonio LeGrier, only to immediately reverse it based on a special interrogatory to the jury (Chicago Sun-Times; Chicago Tribune). Officer Robert Rialmo fatally shot LeGrier and his neighbor, Bettie Jones, while responding to a call about a domestic incident in December 2015.
In a unique twist, the jury also ruled in favor of Rialmo in his lawsuit against LeGrier’s estate for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress but awarded the officer no monetary damages.
The jury answered “yes” when Van Tine asked whether Rialmo had a reasonable belief that LeGrier posed a threat of death or great bodily harm. Van Tine then ruled that the jury’s answer overrode its verdict. Jury foreman Dave Fitzsimmons later told reporters that he believed Rialmo “made a bad decision in the moment.”
Rialmo maintained that LeGrier was outside the vestibule of his building and swung a baseball bat at him; however, Rialmo’s partner testified that he did not see LeGrier swing the bat. Experts for the LeGrier family testified that evidence indicated LeGrier never exited the building’s vestibule, did not swing the bat, and was at least ten feet away from Rialmo when he fired. A defense expert testified that Rialmo was justified in shooting regardless of whether LeGrier swung the bat.
Earlier this year, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability ruled that the shooting was unjustified and recommended Rialmo’s firing. Superintendent Eddie Johnson rejected that finding. The Chicago Police Board will make the final determination.
The city agreed to pay $16 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Jones’s family.
An attorney for the LeGrier estate stated, “we are going to be exploring all our options going forward.” In February, the Illinois Appeals Court reinstated a jury award that had been overturned by a Cook County judge in December 2015 based on a special interrogatory asking whether Officer Marco Proano had a reasonable belief that his life was in danger. The court ruled that the jury’s answer to the interrogatory did not negate the verdict that the shooting was unjustified (Chicago Tribune).
WILSON RELEASED IN LONGSTANDING BURGE CASE
Jackie Wilson was released on bond on June 22, one week after a judge threw out his confession in the 1982 murder of two police officers. Wilson spent 36 years in prison.
Cook County Judge William Hooks ruled that Wilson’s confession was the result of torture by detectives under former Commander Jon Burge. According to Wilson, detectives beat him, shocked him with an electrical device, and put a gun in his mouth during the interrogation (Chicago Tribune).
Special Prosecutor Michael O’Rourke stated that he was prepared to retry the case against Wilson. Prosecutors summarized expected testimony from several witnesses, though they told an “incredulous” Hooks that they did not know if any of them were still alive (Chicago Tribune).
However, in a “bombshell affidavit” (Chicago Sun-Times), Wilson’s lawyers revealed that a major prosecution witness had recanted his earlier testimony against Wilson. Eyewitness Dewayne Hardin stated that police intimidated him into testifying against Wilson. In reality, Hardin claimed, Wilson “looked on in shock” as his brother Andrew shot the two officers.
Andrew Wilson’s case was the first to expose the Burge torture ring. During a 1989 civil rights lawsuit filed by Andrew, his attorneys received a series of anonymous letters from one of Burge’s fellow officers detailing abusive interrogation techniques. After several appeals, Andrew Wilson won a civil rights lawsuit against Burge in 1996 (Chicago Reader).
Burge was fired by the Chicago Police Board in 1993 for torturing Andrew Wilson. He was later convicted on federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges in 2010 and served a four-and-a-half-year sentence. Andrew Wilson’s murder conviction was twice upheld, and he died in prison in 2009.
Jackie Wilson’s new hearing resulted from a 2015 ruling by the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, which found credible evidence that he was tortured. The commission is currently investigating 476 cases (Chicago Sun-Times).
IPRA WHISTLEBLOWER WINS LAWSUIT
A Cook County jury took less than an hour to award $2.8 million to a former civilian investigator who sued the city under the state’s whistleblower law, alleging he was fired for refusing to change findings when he determined police shootings were unjustified (Chicago Tribune).
Lorenzo Davis, a retired Chicago police commander and a supervising investigator with the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), was fired in 2015 by IPRA administrator Scott Ando. At the time, WBEZ reported that the firing followed an evaluation stating that Davis “is clearly not a team player” and “displays... clear bias against police” despite his long career in law enforcement.
The evaluation described Davis as “the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to [officer-involved shootings]” (WBEZ).
Davis stated that he was fired after refusing to change his finding that the 2013 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman was unjustified. IPRA instead ruled that Officer Kevin Fry was justified in shooting Chatman as he ran from a traffic stop following a suspected carjacking, reasoning that Fry could have mistaken Chatman’s cellphone for a weapon.
The city paid Chatman’s family $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit in 2016 (Chicago Sun-Times). Fry and another officer were fired this year by the Chicago Police Board for lying about the circumstances of a domestic violence incident they responded to, in which the suspect was beaten by officers and hospitalized.
“Davis’ trial laid bare the heavy influence of [Mayor Rahm] Emanuel in the city’s police discipline system,” including emails indicating that Davis’s termination was postponed until after Emanuel’s 2015 election (WBEZ).
POLICE BOARD BACKS MOSEQUEDA
The Chicago Police Board voted unanimously to reject a recommendation by the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and Superintendent Eddie Johnson that Officer Raoul Mosequeda be fired for giving false statements regarding his fatal shooting of Darius Pinex in 2011.
The board found that stress and long hours led Mosequeda to provide “false or misleading statements” following the shooting and that poor preparation by city attorneys resulted in misstatements during a subsequent deposition (Chicago Tribune).
Pinex was shot and killed by Mosequeda after attempting to drive away from a traffic stop. Investigators reported finding a gun under the driver’s seat of Pinex’s vehicle.
Hours after the shooting, Mosequeda told an IPRA investigator that he and his partner pulled the car over after hearing a police dispatch describing the vehicle and linking it to an earlier shooting. However, a dispatch recording released during a lawsuit by Pinex’s family did not describe the vehicle or link it to a shooting. IPRA determined that the actual recording cast doubt on the legal justification for the traffic stop.
Prior to a 2013 deposition for the lawsuit, a city attorney played Mosequeda a dispatch recording from a different radio zone, according to the police board.
Senior Corporation Counsel Jordan Marsh resigned after a federal judge found that he had intentionally concealed the recording of the actual dispatch Mosequeda received (Chicago Tribune). After a new trial was ordered, the city settled the Pinex family’s lawsuit for $3.4 million (Chicago Tribune).
The police board ruling restores Mosequeda to full duty with back pay. He had been suspended without pay in August when Johnson recommended his firing. Mosequeda was promoted to field training officer in 2017, just days before IPRA recommended his termination. IPRA ruled that there was insufficient evidence to determine whether Pinex’s shooting violated policy (Chicago Tribune).
“I sat in a deposition and listened to him lie,” Gloria Pinex told the Chicago Tribune. “This is a slap in the face. Total disrespect.”
ANOTHER WATTS VICTIM RELEASED
Anthony McDaniels was released on June 25 after serving ten years in prison on gun charges he alleges were fabricated by former Sergeant Ronald Watts. He is the 24th person to have drug or gun convictions linked to Watts and his public housing unit reversed. Attorney Joshua Tepfer of the Exoneration Project stated that approximately 500 Watts-related convictions have yet to be reviewed (Chicago Tribune).
Watts and Officer Kallat Mohammad pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in 2014. Additionally, 15 officers who worked under Watts were placed on desk duty last year while the Civilian Office of Police Accountability conducts an inquiry into allegations that Watts and his team operated a protection racket.
McDaniels claimed that Watts planted a gun on him after he refused to pay a bribe. However, the gun entered into evidence did not match the firearm described in the police report of his arrest, one of several discrepancies in the case against McDaniels (The Intercept).
LAWSUIT CHALLENGES GANG DATABASE
A coalition of community groups filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) gang database is “arbitrary, discriminatory, over-inclusive and error-ridden,” with officers given “unlimited” discretion to add names—often falsely labeling individuals as gang members “based solely on their race and neighborhood” (Injustice Watch).
Chicagoans for an End to the Gang Database stated that no one is ever notified of their inclusion on the list or given a chance to appeal, despite the fact that inclusion can result in higher bail, longer court sentences, difficulty finding employment, or an increased risk of deportation (Chicago Tribune).
Superintendent Eddie Johnson said CPD has been working on a new policy regarding the database, which will “be coming out in the next few days” (Chicago Sun-Times). Activists expressed skepticism that the department is capable of reforming the database independently.
Last year, the city settled a lawsuit filed by a man who was detained by immigration authorities due to his listing in the database, admitting that he had been incorrectly included (Injustice Watch). This year, ProPublica obtained a copy of the list and reported that it is “riddled with errors” (ProPublica). Additionally, the city’s inspector general opened an audit of the database in April (Hoy).
COUNCIL APPROVES $6 MILLION IN SETTLEMENTS
On June 27, the City Council approved $6 million in settlements for two cases alleging police misconduct. In one case, two officers held a 3-year-old child, her mother, and her grandmother at gunpoint. Additionally, city lawyers were sanctioned for withholding evidence that the officers had lied about a similar incident (Chicago Sun-Times; Chicago Reporter).
In the other case, a man who was convicted of sexual assault in 1981 and served 20 years before being exonerated alleged that police filed false reports and coerced a witness into identifying him (National Registry of Exonerations).
FALSE CONFESSIONS “HALL OF FAME”
One advocate describes Chicago as “the hall of fame” of false confessions. Of 29 exonerations involving false confessions in the United States last year, 13 occurred in Cook County. Additionally, of the 260 false confession cases identified by the National Registry of Exonerations since 1989, 25% were in Cook County. The issue has cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has initiated training for prosecutors in the felony review section to help identify signs of false confessions (ABA Journal).
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE COURT NEARS FIRST ANNIVERSARY
The experimental Restorative Justice Community Court on the West Side has handled 44 cases since last August. Nonviolent offenders diverted by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office meet with victims, community residents, and facilitators to develop “repair of harm agreements.” Chief Judge Timothy Evans stated that the program seeks new forms of accountability, “not...focusing on punishment, but on healing instead...through involving not just the perpetrators but the victims as well.” He hopes to expand the program (WBEZ).