POLICE UNION: CPD VIOLATING DUE PROCESS OF SEVEN COPS FACING FIRING
Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo on Monday accused the Chicago Police Department of violating the due process of seven officers who stand to lose their jobs for allegedly covering up the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
In his long- awaited response to a scathing report by Inspector General Joe Ferguson, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson has moved to fire the seven officers for allegedly violating Rule 14.
That rule prohibits officers from filing false reports or lying under oath during the course of an investigation. Angelo complained that none of the seven officers have been told how they lied. That, he said, is a violation of due process.
“They committed a Rule 14 violation based on what? What specifically did they do? What did they say? What did they write that puts them in that category? I don’t know. They don’t know,” Angelo said.
“No one is being served with specifics of what they did wrong. No one told them, ‘ You said this and you should have said that.’ Is that fair? Is that what we’re looking at now? Everybody is concerned about ‘ transparency.’ That’s the new word of the day. Where’s the transparency of this?”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said under the city’s contract with the officers, the department will provide them with a breakdown of their potential rule violations once administrative charges for separation are formally brought before the Chicago Police Board, which determines punishment for cops.
“Last week, the Bureau of Internal Affairs met with each of the Chicago Police officers to notify them they were being relieved of their police powers for possible rule violations following the inspector general’s investigation into the Laquan McDonald case,” Guglielmi said.
“The Chicago Police Department is committed to the highest levels of transparency and works very hard to balance the release of information with the integrity of investigations and the public’s right to know,” he said.
Angelo said the FOP will represent all seven officers before the police board. He said their defense is being hampered by the union’s inability to get its hands on the inspector general’s report.
“From what I understand, the report is 15,000 pages long. Everyone is concerned about transpar- ency, but no one else has eyes on that report,” Angelo said.
“It’s very frustrating when we have no specifics. Everyone is reaching [ and saying], ‘ They don’t comply with the video.’ But there’s something called ‘ due process.’ It’s hard to go through allegations when we don’t know the specifics.”
The Chicago Sun- Times reported last week that Ferguson recommended that 10 officers be fired for giving accounts of the McDonald shooting that did not jibe with a dashcam video that shows white Police Officer Jason Van Dyke unloading 16 rounds while the black teenager was walking away from police with a knife in his hand.
Three days later, Johnson followed Ferguson’s recommendation by moving to fire seven of the officers, including Van Dyke’s partner Joseph Walsh.
Two others, including Deputy Chief David McNaughton, resigned last week.
Johnson “respectfully disagreed” with Ferguson’s recommendation on the 10th officer, arguing there was “insufficient evidence to prove” a Rule 14 violation.
McNaughton was the incident commander in charge of the shooting scene on Oct. 20, 2014, the night when McDonald was killed.
Van Dyke was charged with murder on Nov. 24, 2015, the day the city released the video.