Chicago Tribune Editorial-December 14, 2015

The Chicago Tribune’s Editorial Board published an insightful editorial about the Glenn Evans trial:

Editorial: Acquitting a Chicago police commander

Glenn Evans, one of the Chicago Police Department’s 22 district commanders, was accused of chasing a suspect, Rickey Williams, into a building, shoving the barrel of his service weapon “deep down” his throat, holding a Taser to his groin and threatening to kill him. He was acquitted.

Editorial Board

Chicagoans have gotten used to seeing police brutality exposed, and the case of Glenn Evans was taken by many people to be an example of that. The veteran police commander was charged with ramming his service pistol down a suspect’s throat. But on Monday, a Cook County judge acquitted Evans on all charges: two counts of aggravated battery and seven counts of official misconduct. The judge concluded that Evans’ accuser was not believable and the evidence wasn’t persuasive.

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 the public ought to defer to the judge’s evaluation of the case. Sometimes cops are falsely accused, and there was more than enough reason to think that this was one of those instances.

Evans’ lawyers, after all, didn’t have to prove him innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution had to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and it failed in the eyes of an experienced judge who has seen and heard countless witnesses in her nearly two decades on the bench.

The prosecution’s case rested on a couple of planks: the testimony of the arrestee, Rickey Williams, who said Evans brutalized him, and the DNA from Williams found on Evans’ gun. But Judge Diane Cannon said the DNA was “of fleeting relevance or significance,” because it could have come from other contact.

The accuser, captured in a foot chase after Evans said he saw him holding a gun, was not exactly a strong witness. He failed to pick Evans out of several photo lineups, and he changed his story that Evans held his pistol in his left hand after prosecutors advised him that the commander wore his holster on his right hip.

Williams said he spat out blood afterward, but he didn’t seek medical treatment. He said Evans applied a Taser to his groin, but Sheila Jackson, the officer in charge of issuing stun guns, testified that Evans wasn’t given one that day. Williams was “eager to change his testimony at anyone’s request to accommodate the evidence,” the judge found.

A Chicago police commander accused of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat and pressing a stun gun to the man’s groin has been found not guilty. Dec. 14, 2015. (WGN-TV)

Had Evans been wearing a body camera, the case would have been easier to resolve. The department is greatly expanding the use of those devices next year, and for good reason: They protect citizens from bad cops and good cops from false claims.

If the trial failed to prove Evans’ guilt, it succeeded in exposing the failings of the Independent Police Review Authority, which has responsibility for investigating allegations of misconduct by Chicago cops. It is known for moving slowly and rarely finding police officers at fault.

Despite Evans’ high position, former chief administrator Scott Ando admitted he didn’t review the case before it was referred to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Ando asked staffers to learn whether Evans was left-handed, but no one did.

An investigator said Jackson told her Evans could have gotten a Taser without checking it out, but Jackson testified that she would never have allowed that to happen — and the investigator didn’t write up her report of the interview until 15 months later. The investigator who turned over the DNA taken from the gun didn’t know that all of it would be used up in testing, leaving none for any additional tests.

Law Offices of Laura J. Morask, LLC

30+ Years Criminal Law Experience

Editorial: Acquitting a Chicago police commander

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