Police Commander Acquitted In Disturbing Brutality Case

Last week, the embattled mayor ousted Scott Ando, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), the city agency tasked with reviewing serious allegations of police misconduct that helped spur the criminal investigation of Evans.

A judge has acquitted a Chicago police commander accused of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat and pressing a stun gun to the man’s groin.

The case comes as the Chicago Police Department is increasingly scrutinized in light of widespread accusations of racism and brutality.

Williams, who the officer found hiding in a closet in the abandoned home, testified that when Evans caught up to him he put his weapon so far down his throat that he gagged and spat blood. However, the judge questioned why the inside barrel of the gun was not tested for Williams’ DNA.

Judge Diane Cannon, who said Williams’ testimony “taxes the gullibility of the credulous”, the Tribune writes, dismissed the evidence by noting that the commander had enough “lawful” contact with Williams to explain the presence of DNA. Glenn Evans not guilty of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and official misconduct stemming from the 2013 incident involving Rickey Williams.

IPRA investigators also waited more than a year to show Williams a lineup of pictures that included Evans and other officers involved in the alleged beating.

Tamir Rice’s family has waited more than a year for Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty to take the death of the 12-year-old seriously, let alone build a case for the two Cleveland police officers involved in his shooting to be held accountable.

But an attorney representing Williams in a federal lawsuit against Evans over the alleged incident blasted Cannon’s decision.

Evans’ three-day bench trial ended last week.

Evans has been the subject of several police misconduct lawsuits, according to local media reports. Evans’ gun was found to have DNA on it but the judge decided this was of “fleeting significance” because it was “touch” DNA, even though the police officer claimed he never used his gun. “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”.

In addition, its investigators also never followed up on orders from its chief administrator and others to determine whether Evans was right- or left-handed.

During an earlier argument by another prosecutor, Cannon seemed incredulous at how Evans could have possibly wiped the gun clean yet Williams’ DNA was still found on the weapon.

[IPRA officials’] testimony was “inept, corrupt, and at times, comically laughable”, the defense attorney said, comparing their statements to the sometimes inconsistent accounts of Williams, 25.

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”.

Williams was unable to pick out Evans or any of the other officers in the many photo arrays he was shown. 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. He also ruled that the officer’s supervisor should have intervened.