Cop Cleared Of Shoving Gun In Suspect’s Mouth

A Cook County judge on Monday aquitted Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans on charges he stuck a gun down a person’s throat.

“It’s been said this is not a good time to try police misconduct”, Judge Diane Cannon said. Glenn Evans not guilty of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and official misconduct stemming from the 2013 incident involving Rickey Williams.

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. She also dismissed evidence thought to be among the most damning – Williams’ DNA on Evans’ gun – suggesting it was collected so sloppily that that it was of “fleeting relevance”.

In closing arguments Thursday, prosecutors had said Evans was no better than the criminals he pursues when he allegedly jammed a gun down a low-level drug dealer’s throat and held a Taser to his groin, hoping the man could provide some information about a recent shooting in the South Side neighborhood Evans had been patrolling.

The accuser, captured in a foot chase after Evans said he saw him holding a gun, was not exactly a strong witness.

Investigators never recovered a gun, and the charges against Williams were later dropped. He was accused of shoving the barrel of his service gun down the throat of a suspect and threatening to kill him back in 2013.

Morask also cast doubt onto the investigation led by the Independent Police Review Authority, the embattled oversight agency that investigates reports of police misconduct.

The release last month of the squad auto video of the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald has led to a series of protests about the police department’s treatment of suspects, particularly blacks, and led to McCarthy’s ouster.

Alvarez has also taken heat for her office’s prosecution of Chicago police officer Dante Servin, who was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year after he shot into a crowd during 2012 incident and killed 22-year Rekia Boyd, an unarmed African-American woman. There were two key elements to this case: one was science, DNA found on police Cmdr.

His attorneys said they were uncertain, if Evans, who has been suspended since he was charged, would return to duty or retire from the police force now that he’s been cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Williams has filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against the city. Evans was charged in August 2014, the Times reported. Its director, Scott Ando, testified during Evans’ trial, even though Ando was forced to resign last week. However, the judge questioned why the inside barrel of the gun was not tested for Williams’ DNA.

Alvarez issued a brief statement, defending her decision to criminally charge Evans. “Evans had argued against Hobley receiving money in a wrongful conviction case, saying “…I have been held in the crosshairs of this movement…ever since”.

“My ruling does not pertain to misconduct”, the judge said.

“It’s not just the smoking gun we claim it to be”, Freeman said of the DNA evidence. She said it was reasonable to think it got on the gun during a tussle during his arrest.