Murderous Chicago cop's ? lawyer calls Laquan McDonald's killing 'business as usual'…

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/laquanmcdonald/ct-laquan-mcdonald-jason-van-? -court-met-20170525-story.html
Chicago cop's lawyer calls Laquan McDonald's killing 'business as usual'

In perhaps a hint of his trial strategy, the lawyer for the Chicago police officer charged in Laquan McDonald's killing argued Thursday in court that the shooting was required by law, calling the officer's actions "business as usual."

"Yes, it was an ugly shooting, ugly from the standpoint it showed a graphic image … not unlike most shootings where a police officer shoots at an individual," Daniel Herbert said in making a long-shot and unsuccessful bid to throw out the indictment of Officer Jason Van ? on claims that prosecutors misled the grand jury. "The point is it was business as usual.

"If a firefighter arrives on the scene of a fire and climbs up on the roof and takes the ax out and cuts the roof open to ventilate the roof ... are we going to charge that firefighter with criminal damage to property? Of course not. It's preposterous," he said. "You cannot be charged criminally for duties you are required by law to do."


A special prosecutor appointed in the case quickly jumped on the characterization, calling it "chilling."

"The defendant has really made a chilling argument here this morning, that this was business as usual," said Joseph McMahon, the Kane County's state's attorney who was brought in to handle the prosecution. "If the defendant is arguing that it was his duty to shoot Laquan McDonald, that is a chilling and scary proposition."

The court-ordered release of a video showing the white officer shooting the black teenager 16 times has roiled the Police Department in the 18 months since and provoked the greatest crisis of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's tenure.

In bringing the first murder charges against a Chicago police officer for an on-duty fatality in nearly 35 years, prosecutors said Van ? opened fire six seconds after exiting his squad car. McDonald was holding a knife with a 3-inch blade and walking in the middle of 41st Street and Pulaski Road shortly before 10 p.m. Oct. 20, 2014.

As McDonald walked away from him, Van ? took at least one step forward and emptied his gun in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors said.

In arguing his point Thursday, Herbert blamed the news media for creating "this fury in the public" over the video.

"The public was told essentially you're going to be appalled when you see this, you'd better be appalled when you see this," Herbert told Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan.

He also implied that the state's attorney's office had been swayed by public opinion to criminally charge Van ? .

"What changed was the way the state's attorney has conducted business," Herbert said. "... Why did it change? It changed not because of the law. The law didn't change. It changed because there was outside factors."

Herbert said McDonald's actions that night — including popping the tire of a squad car with the knife — were criminal and that Van ? had a duty by law to shoot him since he was fleeing arrest.

"It was a forcible felony, and he was fleeing arrest," he said. "The legislators who created this law told police officers, in this situation, you can shoot them. Not only can you shoot them, it's your duty to shoot him. You have to prevent the escape of this dangerous armed criminal."

The extensive arguments came as Herbert sought to dismiss the indictment, contending it was invalid in part because prosecutors didn't inform grand jurors of a state law setting limits on police officers' authority to use force.


But McMahon, the special prosecutor in the high-profile case, argued that a grand jury is an "accusatory body" that by nature hears only one side of a case.

"The grand jury proceedings are not intended to approximate a trial on the merits. They're not intended to weigh potential defenses," he said. "They hear one side of the evidence, just from the prosecutor, and they make a decision of whether a threshold of probable cause has been satisfied."

The defense had filed two separate motions on the issue, but neither has been made public by the judge — highly unusual ordinarily, but not for Gaughan, whose penchant for secrecy was the subject of a front-page Chicago Tribune article in February.

In denying the motions to dismiss, Gaughan said the grand jury had "sufficient evidence" to indict Van ? , who has been suspended without pay since he was charged on the same day in November 2015 that the video was released. The judge also found no misconduct on the part of prosecutors.

As Gaughan announced in the packed courtroom that both motions had been denied, one man apparently snapped his fingers multiple times in approval.

"Get up here, sir," Gaughan ordered.

The man, identified as Moises Bernal, stepped up to the bench, and Gaughan asked him why he came to the hearing.

Bernal paused and looked at the defense table.

"To see a racist murderer on trial," he said to gasps from the courtroom gallery.

Gaughan found Bernal in contempt of court and ordered him jailed on $40,000 bail.

"This is not going to be some type of nonjudicial type thing where people are screaming," the judge said. "For the rest of you who've been acting like ladies and gentlemen, ? love you, and I hope you come back."

With the defense repeatedly raising concerns about Van ? 's security at the courthouse, significant safeguards had been added for Thursday's hearing. Spectators entered through a side door after passing through metal detectors. Sheriff's deputies stood by the courtroom doors throughout the hearing.

Before the proceedings began, a deputy warned spectators not to stand or talk while court was in session or to speak to Van ? . The deputy also cautioned that signs were prohibited. Some attendees had been told to button up their jackets to cover up shirts with slogans on them.

Activist William Calloway, who helped force the release of the McDonald video, told reporters later that protesters would show up at all future court hearings to object to the fact that no trial date has been set 1 1/2 years after Van ? 's indictment.

It isn't uncommon for "heater" cases in Cook County to take several years to go to trial, however.

"We won't rest until we get justice for Laquan," Calloway, 28, said outside the courthouse after Van ? had been escorted by sheriff's deputies into a waiting car on California Avenue.


Comments

  • soul rattler
    soul rattler Members Posts: 18,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Disgusting.

    Let his family member get gunned down like that. Then let's see if he sees it as business as usual.

    The treatment of black people in America is cruel and unusual.
  • So ILL
    So ILL Members Posts: 16,507 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Where's the lie, though. We don't mean ? to them in the "land of the free" smh. He just told you to quit beefing with the next ? and get on his ass, but ? ain't gonna listen while they keep doing business and getting their checks signed and children put through college to help keep the cycle going.