Glenn Evans was acquitted Monday of aggravated battery and official misconduct charges by a Cook County judge. Evans is accused of threatening to kill Rickey Williams and shoving hi…
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No gun belonging to Williams was found on the scene.
Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled in a separate civil case that an officer used excessive force by dragging a handcuffed man from his jail cell after he had been subdued with stun guns.
Cook County Judge Diane Cannon delivered a judgment in favor of Cmdr.
The judge, who didn’t appear to cite one positive aspect to the prosecution case in her ruling, acquitted Evans, 53, on all charges: two counts of aggravated battery and seven counts of official misconduct.
According to the judge, William’s testimony was not acceptable because the suspect could not pick Evans out in a lineup.
Judge Diane Cannon also played up the inconsistencies in Rickey Williams’ account of the on-duty 2013 incident over the years, saying his testimony at the trial last week “taxes the gullibility of the credulous”. Under cross examination, however, she admitted it was possible that simple contact between Williams and Evans’ gun could have been enough to deposit his DNA, meaning the evidence did not confirm the gun was shoved in Williams’ throat. But she opened and closed her remarks by cautioning that the case shouldn’t be grouped with other recent cases of alleged police misconduct.
Evans showed little reaction upon hearing the verdict.
Recently fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called Evans “his best guy”, according to a WBEZ report past year preceding the trial, which also noted that the feeling among officers toward Evans wasn’t universal.
Williams’ lawyers issued a statement saying they will proceed with a lawsuit and are confident they’ll meet the burden of proof needed to show that Evans violated Williams’ rights. Evans was charged in August 2014, the Times reported. The footage sparked protests across the city, which led, in part, to the forced resignation of Police Supt.
Ando acknowledged he asked an investigator and two supervisors early on to find out if Evans was left-handed after Williams said the police commander held a gun in his left hand and a Taser in his right. Others, though, said Evans symbolized the department’s failure to control its officers. And he was held up by critics as an example of the department’s willingness to condone or at least ignore the brutal behavior of its officers.
Cmdr Evans told investigators he confronted Mr Williams because he saw him holding a gun. Evans’ attorneys say there was never a gun down the throat, and the case never should have been brought.
In her closing statement last week, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman said that Evans’ DNA on the pistol was not just a smoking gun “it’s a smoking, freaking cannon”, though no testing was done on the weapon to show whether the DNA came from saliva, which would indicate the weapon had been inside Williams’ mouth.
Investigators never recovered a gun, and the charges against Williams were later dropped. Last week, the embattled mayor ousted Scott Ando, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), the city agency tasked with reviewing serious allegations of police misconduct that helped spur the criminal investigation of Evans.
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The ruling comes amid heightened scrutiny of Chicago police tactics and oversight. “He embellished, he embroidered and he lied like the entire IPRA investigation from start to finish”, Morask said.
