Judge says trial of Chicago cop ‘just one case’

Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans arrives at the Criminal Courts building for the start of his trial Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015, in Chicago. The charges stemmed from the 2013 incident involving Rickey Williams.

The latest on the trial of a Chicago police commander accused of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat (all times local). Both Williams and Evans are black.

Evans says he confronted Williams because he saw him holding a gun. But she opened and closed her remarks by cautioning that the case shouldn’t be grouped with other recent cases of alleged police misconduct. According to the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization in Woodlawn on Chicago’s South Side, less than 2 percent of complaints alleging misconduct filed against the Chicago police between March 2001 and September 2015 resulted in discipline of the officers.

Almost three weeks ago, city officials released dashcam footage of a Chicago Police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. Police officers at the scene disputed the claim.

Evans is one of the highest ranking members of the department to ever face criminal charges and his case has received widespread attention because of his aggressive tactics — condemned by some, praised by others — as the city has struggled to lower its violent crime rate.

Calling the acquittal “a setback right now for any possible reform movement in Chicago”, Leonard L. Cavise, an emeritus law professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said the verdict could suggest to officers on the street that no matter what they do, “an invisible shield is protecting them”. And he was held up by critics as an example of the department’s willingness to condone or at least ignore the brutal behavior of its officers.

Cannon noted that Williams repeatedly offered to change his version of events as the IPRA investigation progressed, including his description of Evans’ appearance or which hand Evans used to hold the gun. Evans’ attorneys say there was never a gun down the throat, and the case never should have been brought.

In her closing statement last week, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Freeman said that Evans’ DNA on the pistol was not just a smoking gun “it’s a smoking, freaking cannon”, though no testing was done on the weapon to show whether the DNA came from saliva, which would indicate the weapon had been inside Williams’ mouth. Investigators never found a gun. Prosecutors presented evidence showing Williams’ DNA on Evans’ service weapon. Cannon dismissed the evidence saying that it could be simply a “touch” effect coming from Evans touching Williams and then touching his gun.

Some citizens will take this as more evidence that the system is tilted in favor of bad cops, that the Chicago Police Department turns a blind eye to abuses and that the city has no effective means of punishing such misconduct. But after the verdict, Evans’ defense attorney Laura Morask said, “This was not a case of police brutality”.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, whose resignation protesters have been clamoring for, issued a statement defending her decision to charge Evans.

In the federal lawsuit, the judge ruled that an officer “chose to use brute force when it was no longer necessary” when he dragged an unmoving Philip Coleman from his cell.

Vincent Jones, the lead IPRA investigator on the case, testified Thursday that as part of the investigation, IPRA supervisors put together photo arrays for witnesses to identify the officers who had been in the abandoned house. The ruling only pertained to how Coleman was dragged from his cell, not how he died. “Now we know”, said the attorney, Stephan Blandin.

A jury will decide the amount in damages.

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