Chicago lawyer resigns after judge rules he hid evidence

The city of Chicago’s law department says one of its lawyers accused by a federal judge of concealing evidence in a civil case regarding a fatal police shooting has resigned.

The embarrassing setback for the city comes amid continuing fallout over the unrelated police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014.

Resulting protests have roiled the nation’s third-largest city with calls for both Emanuel and Alvarez, who is running for re-election this year, to step down as the U.S. Justice Department conducts a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department.

Chang’s Monday ruling throws out an April jury decision that two officers were justified in killing Darius Pinex during a 2011 traffic stop.

The officers, Raoul Mosqueda and Gildardo Sierra, said they opened fire as Pinex refused orders and put his vehicle in reverse. The judge said a city lawyer “intentionally concealed” that evidence.

The $5.5 million adds to more than $100 million that has been paid in court-ordered judgments, settlements of lawsuits and legal fees – most of it spent by the financially strapped city of Chicago and some by Cook County – over the years related to the torture scandal.

“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”, Chang wrote in his 72-page opinion. But on Monday, Judge Edmond E. Chang granted Pinex’s family a new trial, saying in a scathing ruling that a city lawyer intentionally hid evidence from the family’s legal team prior to the start of the trial.

Steve Greenberg, an attorney who represents the family of the man who was killed, said the ruling raises questions about the Law Department’s role in perpetuating a code-of-silence police culture in which officers believe they can act with impunity.

She said she would also increase IPRA’s contact with Chicagoans over the changes needed in the police department.

“It shows the city hasn’t just fought to protect officers, it also fights tooth and nail to protect its lawyers”, he said.

A city law department spokesman said he did not have a way to leave a message for Marsh seeking comment.

A watchdog agency that investigates Chicago police officers said Monday it will implement reforms in the wake of protests over several fatal shootings of African-Americans.

Sharon Fairley, a former federal prosecutor, was named head of the Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, after the former director was sacked in December by Mayor Rahm Emanuel because of public outcry over police killings in the city. “You know in retrospect I think I should have, but I wanted to talk to the sergeant and to see whether it was even relevant”.

The release states that Jones “never posed a danger or threat of harm to police or any other person”. The officer who shot McDonald, Jason Van Dyke, has since been charged with first-degree murder. But in practice, it rarely ruled against officers.