Emanuel Says Federal Probe of City’s Law Dept. Not Needed

Sharon Fairley is acting head of the Independent Police Review Authority.

“The disciplines were not over a destruction of equipment, but officers failing to use the cameras properly, [i.e. syncing the audio; uploading videos at the end of their tour; inspecting the cameras to ensure they work correctly]”, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Chicago’s embattled mayor, Rahm Emanuel, supported the reparations package in April.

After joining Emanuel at an unrelated news conference at a CTA bus garage, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., predicted that the Law Department would rightfully get swept up into the Justice Department’s investigation. 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.

“Reparations, although an historic accomplishment that recognizes that racist violence by the police is not a recent phenomenon, but rather spans many decades, can not heal the city without fundamental, systemic changes within the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the Cook County criminal justice system”.

“It shows the city hasn’t just fought to protect officers; it also fights tooth and nail to protect its lawyers”, said Steve Greenberg, an attorney for the Pinex family.

Officer Jason Van Dyke now faces a first-degree murder charge for fatally shooting Laquan McDonald. But that, the ouster of the police superintendent and Emanuel’s promises of reforms haven’t quieted his critics.

The officers had said they stopped Pinex because his vehicle matched a description they heard on their police radio of a auto suspected of involvement in an earlier shooting.

The officers, Raoul Mosqueda and Gildardo Sierra, said they opened fire as Pinex refused orders and put his auto in reverse. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang also dismissed a jury’s findings that the shooting of Darius Pinex in 2011 was justified, ordered a new trial and the city to pay attorney’s fees to the plaintiff. He said Jordan Marsh, a senior corporation counsel, also later lied about when he was aware of the evidence. Emanuel said Tuesday Jan. 5, 2015, that chief counsel Patton is handling “all the pieces” when it comes to any possible review of cases.

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. The city’s problem, she said, is more than just one bad lawyer. “I have seen time and time again that [city lawyers] are not held to the same rules”. There’s nothing to indicate that Emanuel’s job is in immediate trouble, but he has faced numerous protests and plenty of criticism over the police issues.

“I think there’s an opportunity to take steps that for whatever reason have not been taken before”, Patton said in regards to the case.

Rauner said Wednesday that Mayor Rahm Emanuel showed a “failure of leadership” when he told reporters on Tuesday that such a probe isn’t necessary.