The jury trial ended in February, with the ruling that the officers were justified in killing Pinex.
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In Monday’s ruling, Judge Edmond Chang called for the new trial because city lawyer Jordan Marsh had crucial information that he did not disclose.
In Pinex’s case, the officers who stopped his vehicle testified that they did so because it matched a auto involved in a shooting they had heard about over their police radio.
But Chang also had criticism for the department as a whole in his ruling, including about its record keeping.
Marsh “intentionally withheld radio recordings from the night of the shooting leading up to the trial”, according to the Wall Street Journal. Marsh’s co-counsel, Thomas Aumann, also failed to make “reasonable inquiry” as required by discovery rules into the recording after it was requested by the plaintiff, Chang concluded. “They need to know it is not worth it”. Chang overturned the verdict, imposed sanctions against the city and granted a new trial.
Marsh resigned from his post on Monday, Aumann left his job with the city in August. “The conduct outlined by the court…is unacceptable”. The judge said that Marsh – a senior corporation counsel at Chicago Law Department – “intentionally concealed” that evidence and lied about it when he was aware of the proof, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is on the defensive again, dealing with the fallout from a judge’s opinion accusing a top city lawyer of hiding evidence in another case involving a fatal police shooting.
Separately, the city agency that investigates police shootings vowed greater transparency, saying Monday that it would start divulging some details of active cases as it tries to bolster public confidence in the process.
With police shootings still making headlines – like Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black teen who was shot 16 times by a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, back in 2014 – it seems the reign of terror has simply shifted from torture to shootings.
Under the agreement, the federal government will use an independent observer to oversee the Cleveland Police Department and install widespread amendments to how officers use force, according to the Chicago Tribune. The hope is that the checks will ease the suspicion and distrust that has grown over the years between residents and the police department.
Lynch said that the investigation into the department’s “patterns and practices” would focus on the use of excessive and deadly force, racial bias, and systems of accountability to determine whether its officers systematically violate constitutional rights.
“I realize that trust in this agency can’t be rebuilt overnight”, Fairley said. IPRA has been plagued by budget and staffing shortages.
The city of Chicago has begun a $5.5 million payout of reparations to almost 60 individuals who were tortured by the police in the 1970s and 1980s.
Emanuel, who has been widely criticized for his handling of the McDonald killing, noted that he was “not the mayor” during the long run of torture by the renegade police unit. The furor over the shooting cast fresh attention on IPRA and police accountability issues.
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Wilson was retried and reconvicted of the murders five years later, but filed a civil lawsuit against Burge for torture. The man, Quintonio LeGrier, was also killed.
