The officers were charged with falsifying details of the 2014 shooting. Three Chicago police officers have been found not guilty of falsifying details to cover up the shooting death of Laquan Mcdonald in 2014. McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who was found guilty of murder in October. Det. David March, 60, and patrol officers Joseph Walsh 50, and Thomas Gaffney, 45, were each charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice. A Cook County judge acquitted the officers of all charges. The officers were accused of conspiring in the "critical early hours and days" after the shooting, according to court documents filed in Cook County in June 2017. Prosecutors also accused the officers of coordinating their activities to protect each other and other members of the department by furnishing false information, making false police reports, failing to report or correct false information, ignoring contrary information or evidence, obstructing justice, failing to perform a mandatory duty and performing acts each knew were forbidden to perfect. March, Walsh and Gaffney each opted for a bench trial, so the verdict was reached without a jury. Cook County Judge Domenica Stephens found that prosecutors did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ reports and statements about what happened that night were knowingly false or that they constituted a coordinated effort to falsify accounts of the shooting. Domenica also found that the officers followed requirements to preserve evidence and did not seek to conceal it. Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham told ABC News that the officers acquitted did "nothing wrong," adding that they were charged at the hands of an "overzealous special prosecutor." "It was very clear from the judge’s ruling that there was no credible evidence that they did anything to cover up a crime," Graham said. The police department will continue to "work to ensure" that the systemic reform and "best training" currently underway will continue, according to a joint statement by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. "Unlike past reforms, these will stand the test of time," the statement read. "We have entered into an enforceable consent decree with the Illinois Attorney General, equipped all patrol officers with body worn cameras, revised use of force policies, adopted the recommendations of the Community Policing Advisory Panel, and ensured every officer has the best training throughout their careers." The status of the officers' employment at the police department was not immediately clear.<doc-sep>CHICAGO — Three Chicago police officers on Thursday were found not guilty on all charges that they conspired to protect their colleague who shot and killed teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014. Officer Thomas Gaffney, ex-Officer Joseph Walsh and former Detective David March were acquitted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and official misconduct by Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson. "This court finds that the state has failed to meet its burden on all charges," Stephenson ruled. "Defendants are discharged." The defendants, who each faced up to five years behind bars, were all involved in the probe following officer Jason Van Dyke's killing of McDonald. The three officers opted against having a jury hear their case, and instead asked for a bench trial, leaving their fate in the hands of Judge Stephenson. “Heart-wrenching," a relieved Walsh said after the verdicts were read. "Heartbreaking for my family, for a year and a half.” Walsh's lawyer, Todd Pugh, questioned whether the three officers should have ever been brought to trial. "There never was a case here," Pugh said. Stephenson spent an hour on the bench picking apart the prosecution's case before delivering her final verdicts. The defendants sat stoically as the judge spoke, aside from an occasional nod when Stephenson made a point in favor of the defense. “The truth happened in that courtroom," March's lawyer, James McKay, said. "This case wasn’t even close and these three men were put through hell.” McDonald's family was disappointed. "I am surprised ... that this judge will take it upon herself to make the entire country know what I've known all the time, that justice is justice for everybody but African-Americans in this county of Cook," said McDonald's great-uncle Marvin Hunter. Jurors in Van Dyke’s trial convicted him on Oct. 5, 2018, of second-degree murder for firing 16 times at the McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014. Officers on the scene found McDonald, 17, armed with a knife and called for an officer with a Taser to respond. Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke listens to the proceedings at his trial for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald, at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Sept. 26, 2018, in Chicago. John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool But before that officer could arrive, Van Dyke, who is white, opened fire and shot McDonald as the black teen was walking away from them, dashcam footage of the shooting showed a year later. When the explosive footage was released, it sparked a series of mass protests around the city. McDonald family members said they couldn't understand how Van Dyke could be guilty of the shooting while his colleagues were not guilty in the alleged cover-up. "To say that these men are not guilty is to say that Jason Van Dyke is not guilty," Hunter said. "It is a sad day for America." Even though the charged officers wrote reports that seemed to differ with the video — and differ in a strikingly similar manner — Stephenson said that's not evidence of a criminal cover-up. "Two people, with two different vantage points, can witness the same event, but describe it differently," the judge said. "This does not necessarily mean that one of them is lying — rather it could be an indication that they are describing what they saw from their vantage point, with their own perceptions." Special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes said, even though her side didn't win any convictions, the case still helped make police more accountable. “Disagree with ruling but respect the ruling,” she said. “We respect the system, we respect the fact that we were allowed to." Ron Safer, the assistant special prosecutor on the case, still said he believes the officers should have been convicted. "We believe the evidence was sufficient beyond any reasonable doubt," Safer said. "This case was a case with a code of silence. I think the next police officer who thinks about writing a false police report will think twice." Van Dyke is set to be sentenced on Friday with prosecutors asking that he get at least 18 years in prison and defense lawyers calling for their client to get only probation. Det. March was assigned to investigate the shooting and deemed it justified, claiming dashcam video supported Van Dyke's version of events. Walsh was Van Dyke's partner and Gaffney was also at the scene of McDonald's killing that night. Walsh told investigators that McDonald was walking toward Van Dyke and with his arms raised when he was shot, a version of evidence contradicted by the footage, prosecutors said. Gaffney signed off on allegedly false reports that said the officers were injured in their encounter with McDonald, prosecutors said. The trial also showcased the difficulty officers said they have, in coming forward with critical information about their colleagues. Officer Dora Fontaine testified that she never saw McDonald threaten any officers at the scene — but that March instructed her to make up that allegation in a report. "Other officers were calling me a rat, a snitch, a traitor, they wouldn't back me up," she testified. "If I was on a call-in and needed assistance, some officers felt strong enough to say that I didn't deserve to be helped." Puskar and Eggers reported from Chicago, while Li reported from New York<doc-sep>Chicago — A judge issued a not guilty verdict Thursday for three Chicago police officers accused of lying in their reports to protect the white officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald. Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson issued the verdict Thursday for David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney. They had been charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and official misconduct for allegedly lying about the 2014 shooting, which sparked large protests and accusations of a cover-up after dashcam video of the confrontation emerged 13 months after it happened. Stephenson found them not guilty on all three charges. The video, which city officials refused to release until ordered by a judge, showed Officer Jason Van Dyke firing round after round into the 17-year-old, and it conflicted with the officers' accounts, which stated that McDonald aggressively swung a knife at police and kept trying to get up even after he was shot. Van Dyke was convicted by a jury in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery — one for each bullet he shot McDonald with. An image from a police dashcam video shows the moments before 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, right, was shot and killed by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke on Oct. 20, 2014. Chicago Police Department Stephenson found the state didn't meet their burden in proving a series of allegations against the defendants, including that the three lied in police reports or conspired to cover up information. She said even if there were errors in the police reports they filed, it wouldn't rise to the level of the officers knowingly making a false report or a conspiracy. Stephenson said the video amounts to a "vantage point" that was taken from a different angle than Walsh's view. She said comparing the police reports to the video to determine whether the reports were true — as the state had argued — would amount to looking at only a portion of the evidence. "Two people with two different vantage points can witness the same event and describe it differently," Stephenson said. "This doesn't mean they are lying." Activists and McDonald's family immediately decried the verdict. McDonald's great uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, said that "to say that these men are not guilty is to say that Jason Van Dyke is not guilty." "The verdict says to police officers that you can lie, cheat, steal, rape, rob and pillage and it's OK, we will support you and make sure you never see the inside a jail cell," Hunter said. Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Walsh said the case had been "heart-wrenching, heartbreaking for my family for a year and a half." A defense lawyer praised the judge as courageous, saying she didn't bow to a "tremendous amount of pressure" to convict the three defendants. Prosecutors contended that Walsh, who was Van Dyke's partner, and Gaffney, a patrolman, wrote among other things that McDonald assaulted Van Dyke, CBS Chicago reported. Gaffney claimed Van Dyke and other officers had been injured. None of those details aligned with the dashcam video, which showed McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke when he was fatally shot. Prosecutors said March — a detective who investigated the shooting — not only cleared Van Dyke of any wrongdoing by saying the video matched witness accounts, but also told another officer to include false information in her report, CBS Chicago reported. But Stephenson said that that officer, key prosecution witness Officer Dora Fontaine, "tried to minimize" McDonald's behavior and gave conflicting testimony on what happened that night. She said she did not believe Fontaine's allegation that March attributed a false statement to her in his report on the shooting. Stephenson said the state didn't prove that listing officers as victims in the police report constituted a falsehood. She said it was "undisputed and undeniable" that McDonald was an "armed offender" and didn't drop the knife for several blocks. The judge repeatedly stated that McDonald was moving after being hit by the first few bullets and refused to relinquish the knife. "An officer could have reasonably believed an attack was imminent," she said. "It was borne out in the video that McDonald continued to move after he fell to the ground." Those and other comments suggest she accepted an argument jurors in the Van Dyke murder trial seem to rejected: that McDonald was a bona fide threat. The video that was crucial to convicting Van Dyke appears to show that McDonald's movements while lying on the street were largely caused by Van Dyke continuing to shoot him. The judge also said there was no indication that officers tried to hide evidence. "The evidence shows just the opposite," she said. She singled out how they preserved the graphic video at the heart of the case. Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke takes the stand in his murder trial for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, Illinois, on Oct. 2, 2018. Reuters Van Dyke is believed to be the first Chicago officer convicted in a fatal on-duty shooting of an African-American. The other three are thought to the first to be charged with trying to cover up an on-duty shooting. Gaffney is the only one who remains with the police department, although he has been suspended without pay. Although the officers' case has not garnered as much attention as Van Dyke's, many viewed it as more significant because it challenges the code of silence that critics have long accused the police department of using to cover up its messes. Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department attorney who helped lead an investigation of the police department after the McDonald shooting, said it's noteworthy the trial was held in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously acknowledged the department's code of silence after the release of the video. Speaking of the "blue code of silence," Hunter said the verdict "solidifies it, bolsters it, keeps it intact and in play." Attorneys for the officers accused of lying about the shooting ridiculed the decision to charge them, telling the court during the trial that the officers merely wrote what they observed or, in March's case, what the other officers told him they saw. They said there was no evidence that the officers conspired to get their stories straight. "The state wants you to criminalize police reports," McKay bellowed at one point. Robert Weisskopff, a retired Chicago police officer who once headed the lieutenants' union, expressed worry that the case will cause other officers to be less forthcoming. "What cops on the street are going to start writing is, 'We came, we saw, he's dead,'" he said. "Why would you do any more investigation if you thought you could lose everything if what you believed was true turns out not to be?" Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said officers already shaken by the prosecution of six Baltimore police officers in the 2015 arrest and death of Freddie Gray — all were acquitted or had cases against them dropped — echoed that sentiment. "What's the incentive to disclose everything you know if you fear it will be used against you?" he said. Van Dyke is due to be sentenced Friday by Judge Vincent Gaughan. The city isn't planning the same show of force for Van Dyke's sentencing that it deployed on the day of the verdict in his trial, when metal barriers lined the street outside the courthouse and dozens of uniformed officers stood every few feet. There are no plans to cancel high school sporting events or nervous parents talking about keeping their kids home from school, like there were on that day. Although police were not expecting a large turnout of protesters for Van Dyke's hearing, black community leaders said they would pay close attention to the sentence. The Rev. Marshall Hatch, a prominent black minister on the city's West Side, said the hopefulness that the black community felt after Van Dyke was convicted will evaporate if he receives a light prison sentence or even walks free. "It will be like he got away with murder, absolutely," he said.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — A judge has found three Chicago police officers not guilty of covering up details in the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. Former Detective David March, former Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney had been accused of falsifying police reports to protect Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was found guilty in October of second-degree murder in McDonald’s death. They faced charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice, but Cook County Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson said in her ruling the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers engaged in a conspiracy to prevent a criminal investigation, and acquitted the officers of all charges. Stephenson’s ruling came more than a month after the officers’ five-day bench trial ended. Todd Pugh, the attorney for Walsh, told reporters the judge displayed “courage and integrity” in her ruling. “There never was a case here,” Pugh said, “despite all of the interest that all you have, there never ever was a case.” Walsh told reporters the ordeal had been “heart-wrenching.” “Heartbreaking for my family,” he said. “A year-and-a-half.” Stephenson spent an hour going point-by-point to explain how the prosecution had fallen short of proving its claims. Part of the prosecution’s case relied on allegations that officers gave the same details in their incident reports, details that were contradicted by dashcam footage. But Stephenson said the footage did not show the perspectives of all the officers on the scene, so it could not be definitively said that the comments they made in their reports were not consistent with what they saw, even if it differed from the video. All the evidence needed to be taken into account, Stephenson said, and to say that discrepancies between the officers’ accounts and the video pointed to a conspiracy was “nothing more than speculation.” The prosecution had also alleged that, to prevent criminal investigation of Van Dyke, police falsely claimed three officers were battered by McDonald. But Stephenson said the prosecution did not prove the officers were listed as victims as part of a conspiracy or effort to obstruct justice. ’This is not justice’ After the verdict, Marvin Hunter, McDonald’s great uncle, said he was surprised by the verdict, and that it spoke to his belief that the Cook County criminal justice system was “corrupt.” “This is not justice,” Hunter said, adding that he hoped there would not be a similarly disappointing outcome in Van Dyke’s sentencing, which is slated for Friday. The case had come to represent a referendum on Chicago police officers’ so-called “code of silence,” and their alleged willingness to protect each other. Special Prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes said, “We of course disagree with the ruling, but we respect the ruling.” “We do hope that this has been a crack in the wall of the code of silence, and that others will think twice about engaging in conduct that might land them in an investigation such as this.” Van Dyke was also found guilty last fall of 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm – one for each time he fired on 17-year-old McDonald. He faces between four and 20 years in prison for the second-degree murder conviction and would be eligible for probation, according to prosecutors. The aggravated battery convictions carry a potential sentence of between six and 30 years with no probation. CNN’s Dakin Andone reported and wrote this story in Atlanta, while Dave Cera reported from Chicago. CNN’s Brad Parks, Chris Boyette, Steve Almasy, Darran Simon and Brad Parks contributed to this report.