Chicago Cops Found Not Guilty Of Cover-Up In Laquan McDonald Shooting Case Enlarge this image toggle caption Zbigniew Bzdak/AP Zbigniew Bzdak/AP Updated at 3:24 p.m. Three Chicago cops were found not guilty of attempting to cover up the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Handing down her decision Thursday afternoon, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson attacked the prosecution's case, including its heavy reliance on police reports and an infamous dashcam recording that showed convicted Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shoot 17-year-old McDonald 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014. Officer Thomas Gaffney, former Officer Joseph Walsh, and former Detective David March were each found not guilty of obstruction of justice, official misconduct, and conspiracy. In a lengthy statement, Stephenson said it was reasonable to believe an attack was imminent and the shooting should not be viewed in hindsight. "It is not as simple as looking at the reports and comparing them to what was on the video," Stephenson said. The dashcam video showed McDonald walking away from Officer Jason Van Dyke just before the shooting. The recording sparked political upheaval and was later used to convict Van Dyke of second-degree murder and aggravated battery. Van Dyke is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Beyond the video, Stephenson attacked the credibility of state witnesses and their heavy reliance on police reports. Notably, she called the testimony of Officer Dora Fontaine, a key state witness, "not credible." She also criticized state witness Jose Torres for not immediately telling police he witnessed the shooting. Prosecutors had claimed the police reports filed by March, Gaffney, and Walsh were part of a conspiracy to cover up for Van Dyke. Gaffney, Walsh, and March all waived their right to a jury trial and instead chose to have Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson decide their fate. The trial closed Dec. 6 with none of the men taking the stand and their lawyers calling only one witness. Police reform advocates hoped Stephenson's decision will send a message that the so-called police code of silence will no longer be tolerated. The defendants, meanwhile, have maintained they reported on the McDonald shooting to the best of their abilities and the charges against them were trumped up to satisfy an outraged public. Here's a recap of the courtroom arguments Stephenson considered before announcing her verdict. The prosecution: 'Right there in black and white' In addition to the dashcam video, prosecutors relied heavily police reports to build their case. The video, they said, proved McDonald was not an immediate threat even though he was carrying a knife with a three-inch blade. But in some police reports, Van Dyke, Gaffney, and Walsh each checked a box to indicate McDonald used force likely to cause death or great bodily harm. "The only way the shooting of Laquan McDonald could be justified is if that last box is checked," Special Prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes told the judge during closing arguments. "Defendants Gaffney and Walsh checked that box knowing it was a lie. ... That's official misconduct, that's obstruction of justice, that's conspiracy — right there in black and white." March was not on the scene when Van Dyke killed McDonald, but prosecutors claimed he used his position as the detective investigating the shooting to shape a false narrative that justified Van Dyke's decision to shoot. Prosecutors pointed to a report from March that stated, "McDonald committed aggravated assaults against the three officers, finally forcing Officer Van Dyke, in defense of his life, to shoot and kill McDonald." March's investigation concluded the dashcam video was consistent with the information officers reported, an assertion the prosecution called a lie beyond any reasonable doubt. The defense: 'There was no intent to mislead' Lawyers representing the cops admitted that the reports contained inaccuracies, but argued honest mistakes aren't a crime. "There was nothing illegal about the way these forms were filled out," defense attorney Thomas Breen said during closing arguments. "There was no intent to mislead." The defense teams also insisted the cops did not conspire with each other, but rather each simply had a similar perspective of the shooting. "[Prosecutors] want to criminalize police reports," defense lawyer James McKay yelled during closing arguments. "Evidence matters here ... The state's case is so weak. The absence of real credible evidence is so apparent." This story is part of 16 Shots, a podcast about the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald, the trial of officer Jason Van Dyke and the troubled relationship between African-Americans and the Chicago Police Department.<doc-sep>CHICAGO – A judge found three Chicago police officers not guilty Thursday of conspiring to cover up damning details around the controversial police shooting of Laquan McDonald, the black teen whose 2014 death sparked public outrage and political tumult in the nation’s third-largest city. Officer Thomas Gaffney, former Officer Joseph Walsh and former Detective David March had been charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and official misconduct for allegedly filing false reports to protect their colleague, Officer Jason Van Dyke. Cook County Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson found Gaffney, March and Walsh not guilty of all counts. Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times, was convicted in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery. Van Dyke is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. He faces up to 96 years in prison. Van Dyke was the only officer to open fire on McDonald. Prosecutors alleged that Gaffney, Walsh and March tried to hide details of the incident by providing or signing off on inaccurate reports to protect Van Dyke. Prosecutors said a police dashcam video and witness testimony contradicted the officers’ description of the Oct. 20, 2014, encounter. But Stephenson found prosecutors failed to prove any “grand scheme” to provide false information to investigators. Walsh and Gaffney had reported that the 17-year-old McDonald lunged at Van Dyke with a knife and assaulted other officers. "We cannot now view the actions of the officers with the benefit of hindsight as to what they should have believed,” Stephenson said in a lengthy ruling. Walsh, who was Van Dyke's partner on the night of the shooting, called the ordeal "heart-wrenching for my family." March and Gallagher declined to comment. Todd Pugh, an attorney for Walsh, said "the judge showed courage and integrity, unlike the media." "There never was a case here," he said. Gaffney, Walsh and March opted for a bench trial, leaving their fate to Stephenson, not a jury. Attorneys offered their closing arguments last month, but Stephenson took time to weigh the evidence. She was presented with thousands of pages of police documents, rival expert testimony, witness accounts and video footage of the shooting and moments that led to it. The shooting of McDonald, a troubled teen who had been in and out of the juvenile justice system, further widened the chasm between police and Chicago's African-American population, who make up nearly a third of the city's population. It was one of several police shootings around the nation that sparked a broader conversation about policing in black communities. Prosecutors have asked Judge Vincent Gaughan to sentence Van Dyke to at least 18 yearsinprison. Van Dyke's defense team has asked for probation only. Authorities, concerned about Van Dyke's safety, are holding him in a county jail in Western Illinois instead of Chicago. At the heart of both cases is the chilling dashcam video of the incident. It shows that McDonald was veering away from Van Dyke, not lunging toward him, when the officer unleashed a barrage of gunfire. William Calloway, the activist who sued to compel the city to release the video of the incident, called Stephenson's ruling devastating. "It doesn’t take rocket science to see what they did is illegal," Calloway said. He urged Chicagoans to express their outage at the polls next month, when the city will pick a new mayor. The Rev. Marvin Hunter, who is McDonald's great uncle, said the judge sent a message with the verdict "that if you are a police officer, you can lie, cheat and steal." "To say that these men are not guilty is to say that Jason Van Dyke is not guilty," Hunter said. More:Prosecutors in Laquan McDonald coverup trial say Chicago cops failed to obey the law More:Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder in 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald More:Prosecutors: Chicago cops betrayed oath in covering up the shooting death of Laquan McDonald Karen Sheley, director of ACLU of Illinois Police Practices Project, called the acquittals "a painful reminder of the complete lack of structural accountability for police officers in Chicago." "The judge’s findings will allow these three officers to escape criminal consequences for their part in covering up the murder of Laquan McDonald," Sheley said. "The court’s decision does nothing to exonerate a police department so rotten that a teenager can be murdered – on video – by one of its officers and no one in the chain-in-command lifted a finger to do anything about it." At the trial, prosecutors presented a series of emails sent and received by supervisors to suggest that there was a broad effort within the department to help Van Dyke justify the shooting. But none of the emails were written by the officers on trial. Sgt. Daniel Gallagher, who was March’s boss, wrote to Lt. Anthony Wojcik weeks after the incident that police officers are “trained to shoot until the threat is eliminated, defeated or neutralized.” Wojcik, who is now retired, supervised the McDonald investigation. Van Dyke did exactly what he was trained to do,” Gallagher wrote. “We should be applauding him, not second-guessing him.” Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, asked Wojcik in an April 2015 email: “Tony, any luck making the case go away?” CONSPIRACY OR MINOR REPORTING ERRORS? Attorneys for the officers said there was no was conspiracy. At worst, they argued in court, the men made some minor errors in writing their reports. The prosecution, they argued, failed to show that the officers collaborated. They claimed the prosecution was politically motivated. James McKay, March’s defense attorney, said the prosecution’s case was “ridiculous” and called witness testimony “a crock.” At one point during the trial, he argued that if March had truly wanted to cover for Van Dyke, he would have tossed the video of the shooting “in the middle of Lake Michigan.” “They didn’t prove anything in this (alleged) conspiracy,” McKay said. City leaders resisted releasing the video.It wasn't made public until Calloway and a journalist sued. The release came 400 days after the shooting. The footage sparked citywide protests and sullied the reputation high-ranking political leaders. The handling of the case fueled activists’ contention that an unofficial “code of silence” persists in one of the nation’s largest police departments. The code, critics say, allows bad cops to act with brutality without fear of being held accountable. Special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes expressed disappointment in the rule, but expressed hope that the case will help improve the department's culture. "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," she said Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago police union, scoffed at the notion that officers are willing to look the other way at wrongdoing by their colleagues. He also said that the "relentless" media coverage of the case has had a "chilling effect" on the rank-and-file. "There is no code of silence," Graham said. Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police superintendent Garry McCarthy days after the video’s release. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez was defeated in the Democratic primary months later. Emanuel announced in September that he wouldn’t run for reelection. McCarthy is among more than a dozen candidates running in next month’s election to replace Emanuel as Chicago’s mayor. The former police superintendent said he respected the ruling. "From the very beginning I thought this was going to be a very difficult case for prosecutors to prove conspiracy," McCarthy said. Toni Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board president and one of the top candidates in the mayoral race, called the judge's ruling "a brutal reminder that considerable work remains in piecing together the shattered trust between the police and Chicago’s black and brown communities." Another top mayoral contender, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, called the finding "another tragic reminder of the broken culture within the police department and the work we have to do to fix it.” Emanuel and his police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, offered no opinion in a joint statement on the acquittal. “While the court process in this case is over, our work to ensure the systemic reform underway at the Chicago Police Department continues," Emanuel and Johnson said. "CPD is on the road to reform with no off-ramps. Unlike past reforms, these will stand the test of time." VIDEO CONTRADICTED OFFICERS’ REPORTS Officers were responding to reports of a person breaking into vehicles in a truck lot on Chicago's Southwest Side when they encountered McDonald. Gaffney and his partner, among the first to arrive on the scene, saidthe teen was wielding the knife. McDonald, who authorities say had PCP in his system, ignored repeated calls by police to drop the knife. Officers followed the teen for several blocks as he wound his way through city streets. At one point, he scratched the windshield and popped the tire of Gaffney’s squad car. “It is undisputed and undeniable that McDonald was an armed offender who ignored verbal commands to drop his knife for several blocks and continued to approach a more populous area," Stephenson said in her ruling. Van Dyke told investigators that McDonald raised the knife in a menacing manner, and that he backpedaled as the teen approached. The police video does not support Van Dyke's account. It showsthe officer jumping out of a squad car and opening fire within seconds. Walsh, who was Van Dyke's partner that night, said in police documents that he, too, "backed up" as McDonald came within 12 to 15 feet. He said the teen "swung the knife toward the officers in an aggressive manner." Gaffney, who requested officers equipped with tasers come to the scene, indicated in an official post-incident report that Van Dyke and other officers were battered in the incident. No officers were hurt. William Fahy, Gaffney’s defense attorney, said Gaffney might have made minor mistakes in his reporting. But he argued that the prosecution’s theory that the paperwork demonstrated an attempt to cover up “simply doesn’t make sense.” Fahy said Gaffney did not witness the shooting, and his report of battery against the officers was referring to McDonald popping the tire and scratching the windshield of his squad car. “I have yet to meet the perfect police officer, and I have yet to see a perfect police report,” Fahy said. COOPERATING OFFICER CALLED “A RAT” March, the lead detective, signed off on statements given by officers at the scene who gave accounts that were contradicted by the video. Earl Briggs, an investigator for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Officer, testified that March told him that McDonald lunged at Van Dyke before being shot. Briggs said he used the information to fill out a report for his office. The investigator said he read the narrative back to March. Special assistant prosecutor Ron Safer said the video belied claims that the officers were in imminent danger. He said the fact that the officers provided nearly identical statements strongly suggests they collaborated to write false reports. Walsh, Van Dyke and Gaffney all checked a box on their reports that McDonald committed a battery with a deadly weapon against them. Each also checked a box that McDonald used force against them that was likely to cause death or great bodily harm. “How can three people get that identically wrong unless they have agreed to tell the same story?” Safer asked. Chicago police Officer Dora Fontaine, who arrived at the scene as the shooting unfolded, testified that March directed her to fill out paperwork saying Van Dyke was injured by McDonald. Fontaine, who received immunity from prosecutors for her testimony, said she has been shunned by colleagues as a ‘rat, a snitch, a traitor" for cooperating with prosecutors. Defense attorneys and the Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, which paid for her legal counsel, said she lacked credibility. “Dora Fontaine is not a flipper,” McKay said. “She’s a flip-flopper.” Stephenson noted in her ruling that Fontaine never contacted March or supervisors to point out concerns about what was attributed to her in the department's official reports. "The court finds that her trial testimony ... is not credible," Stephenson said. Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad<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.