A Chicago police commander accused of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat and pressing a stun gun to the man’s groin was acquitted on battery and misconduct charges Monday, in a ruling that comes amid heavy criticism of the police department’s treatment of suspects.
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In an unexpected twist, Servin was found not guilty in May after Cook County Judge Dennis Porter said prosecutors should have charged the officer with a more serious offense than involuntary manslaughter. The charges stemmed from the 2013 incident involving Rickey Williams.
The acquittal of Glenn Evans, 53, represents a setback for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who has been sharply criticized for taking 13 months to charge another police officer, Jason Van Dyke, with murder in the 2014 shooting death of a black teenager.
A judge on Monday acquitted a Chicago police commander accused of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat, outlining what she said were flaws in the state’s case and stressing that it shouldn’t be conflated…
Williams testified that Evans put his service pistol so far down his throat that he gagged and later spat blood.
Prosecutors had built their case in large part on evidence that showed Williams’ DNA was on Evans’ gun, but Cannon said she was convinced the DNA could was “touch DNA” that could have been transferred to the weapon from Evans’ own hands after struggling with Williams.
Defense attorney Laura Morask said the presence of DNA did not prove the gun was in Williams’ mouth. Evans would waive his constitutional right to a jury trial.
Evans has been the subject of several police misconduct lawsuits, according to local media reports.
In addition, its investigators also never followed up on orders from its chief administrator and others to determine whether Evans was right- or left-handed.
But a new U.S. Justice Department investigation into the police department still looms, as does continued pressure from protesters for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to either resign or take seriously the need for a moral and structural overhaul of a department that has, to date, been seen as protecting rogue police officers.
On Thursday, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman said that DNA was not only a “smoking gun” in her case, “It’s a smoking freaking cannon”.
Morask slammed Williams’ testimony last week – claiming Williams has “five million reasons to lie”, referencing a pending civil suit Williams’ attorneys filed against the city that seeks $5 million in damages. One former commander called Evans a “loose cannon”.
Prosecutors alleged that Evans tried to destroy evidence by wiping down his Smith & Wesson service gun before turning it over to be swabbed for DNA.
“My ruling does not pertain to misconduct committed by law enforcement throughout the city and country, nor does it pertain to the victims of brutality by law enforcement”, she said.
Williams was unable to pick out Evans or any of the other officers in the many photo arrays he was shown. A gun was never recovered from the scene.
Williams was charged with reckless conduct but that charge was eventually dropped.
The agency is under fire for failing to aggressively pursue police misconduct, with less than 2% of allegations against Chicago cops over the last eight years being found to have merit.
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After a long pause, Jones replied: “It could be”.
