Judge clears Chicago cop of brutality charges

A judge found Evans not guilty following a bench trial last week for aggravated battery and official misconduct in the 2013 arrest of Rickey Williams, 25, according to a spokeswoman for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

A Cook County judge on Monday acquitted Chicago police Cmdr.

But Cannon said the inconsistencies in Rickey Williams’ account of the 2011 incident “taxes the gullibility of the credulous”, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The closing arguments were heard in court Thursday in a police brutality case involving Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans, a 30-year veteran who is accused of shoving his gun down an alleged victim’s throat.

A DNA expert who testified in court Wednesday said she found Williams’ DNA on Evans’ gun after the alleged incident. He testified that Evans held the gun in his mouth with his left hand, and after seeing a photograph of Evans with his gun holster on the right side of his body, changed his story to say Evans used his right hand. Investigators never found a gun.

Williams filed a complaint with IPRA against Evans, who had dozens of previous complaints filed against him by citizens, a day after the alleged incident.

Chicago’s embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel has fired the police chief and pledged the city’s “complete co-operation” with the federal probe.

Evans “wiped” off his gun before he turned it over to IPRA to be swabbed, prosecutors suggested, attempting to explain why the officer’s DNA wasn’t on the.

That was the only reasonable explanation for why large amounts of Williams’ DNA were found on the gun but none of Evans’, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman told the judge in her closing remarks. “Now we know”, said the attorney, Stephan Blandin.

Williams “defied belief” when he said that Evans attacked him and another officer punched him and smashed his face into the kitchen floor in a decrepit, abandoned house at 7105 S. Eberhart Ave., Morask said.

The city’s main police oversight agency, the Independent Police Review Authority, also came under fire during the trial. Former Cmdr. Evans has been on a no-pay status since he was criminally charged. Prosecutors presented evidence showing Williams’ DNA on Evans’ service weapon.

Evans’ lawyers have said that he disciplined Campbell when she was a civilian employee in the 2nd Police District.

“They were inept, they were at times corrupt (and) they didn’t want to see the things that made Glenn Evans… innocent, ‘ said Laura Morask”.

Alvarez issued a brief statement, defending her decision to criminally charge Evans.

“This case underscores the reality that it is extremely hard to convince judges or juries in Cook County and around the country to convict police officers of misconduct in the line of duty, despite the fact that this victim made an immediate outcry and we had DNA evidence to support our case”, said Alvarez. “In what world is putting a gun barrel down someone’s throat doing police (work)?”

The climate of Chicago is not lost on Cannon, who acknowledged that “this is not a good time to try a case like this”, adding that it is never a good time for police misconduct. He will not immediately be reinstated to his post, pending investigations by the Police Department and by the Independent Police Review Authority, said CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

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