Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges, while McCarthy was sacked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel amid the fallout.
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Chicago police shot Darius Pinex in 2011, saying the auto he was in matched another vehicle wanted in a shooting.
“In three years, we settled up legally, reparations and a verbal apology what hasn’t been done in three decades”, Emanuel told the newspaper.
The head of a city watchdog that investigates Chicago police shootings pledged greater transparency as the agency does its work, while at the time Monday a federal judge blasted the city’s legal arm for trying to hide evidence in one police shooting.
“To the context that we’re in now, it says that the city is willing to hold itself accountable and be responsible in fixing something and having the determination”, he said. “Attorneys who might be tempted to bury late-surfacing information need to know that, if discovered, any verdict they win will be forfeit and their clients will pay the price”, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang wrote in his 72-page decision.
But records later emerged showing that the officers weren’t listening to the channel broadcasting the radio traffic about the vehicle involved in the earlier shooting. That effort to build public trust has been stymied more recently by events such as the release of the police dash-cam video of a white police officer killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, hitting him with 16 shots; and the police shooting of a 19-year-old black man that included the accidental police killing of his 55-year-old neighbor. When he sanctioned the city for Aumann’s actions, Chang said practices conducted by the Law Department placed its attorneys “at risk” for violating discovery rules because of improper training about requesting and collecting evidence and documents.
A federal jury cleared the officers. “I don’t think they cared that (Pinex) got killed, they didn’t care what the truth was and they didn’t care they cheated (with the evidence)”. Under Patton, Marsh was promoted to senior corporation counsel in August 2011, a few months after Emanuel took office, the city confirmed Tuesday. She said the problem is bigger than a single city lawyer going astray.
There is no indication that Emanuel’s job is in immediate jeopardy, but he continues to face protests and criticism over the police issues.
Asked about state Rep. La Shawn Ford’s legislation that would allow Chicago voters to attempt recall the mayor, Rauner said he hasn’t studied the bill but based on what he’s been told about it, “I would sign that bill”.
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Steve Greenberg, an attorney in the civil case Chang ruled on, said he would expect attorneys who sued the city in similar cases to take a close look for possible misconduct by the law department that might be grounds to have those cases reopened. Plus, the majority of those calling for his resignation are grassroots activists and residents, not the city’s powerful.
