Newly-released documents reveal the intense arguments filed by former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, in an attempt to dismiss the murder charges he faced two years ago.
Van Dyke was convicted of murder in the 2014 killing of teenager LaQuan McDonald, who died after Van Dyke fired 18 shots into his body after he ignored demands that he drop a knife and surrender to police. A police dashcam showed the shooting in vivid detail, and the release of that tape sparked intense protests throughout the city.
In the runup to Van Dyke’s trial, his attorney's argued that their client had become a sacrificial lamb, thrown to the wolves to placate an angry public.
“It was all but inevitable that the city would erupt when the tape was shown--and it did,” Defense Attorney Daniel Herbert wrote in a pretrial motion seeking dismissal of the indictment against Van Dyke. “The public was constantly told that they should, and would, be outraged.
Herbert told the judge it was obvious that his client “was sacrificed to appease the angry hoarde.”
Twenty documents, which had previously been kept under seal, were released Wednesday. Many carried heavy redactions, some through the entire document.
In one series of motions, the defense lawyers argued that prosecutors had prejudiced the grand jury with misleading testimony, and a failure to inform them of Illinois law, which gives officers wide latitude in the use of deadly force.
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“As a result, the grand jurors did not and could not have known that Illinois law potentially allowed Officer Van Dyke to use deadly force legally to stop McDonald from more violence,” they wrote. “The omissions by the prosecutors violated Van Dyke’s 5th amendment right by presenting deceptive and misleading evidence.”
Prosecutors vehemently objected that it was not their job to present Van Dyke’s defense to the grand jury.
“The people had no legal obligation to present (the law) or any exculpatory information,” Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon wrote. Noting that it has “always been thought sufficient to hear only the prosecutor’s side” in grand jury proceedings, McMahon said to do otherwise “would turn 200 plus years of law on its head.”
At one point prior to trial, defense lawyers sought to offer proof of McDonald’s violence tendencies, and said they hoped to put his mother Tina Hunter on the stand to discuss his PCP and marijuana use as well as an incident where she became so fearful she called police.
Hunter never testified at trial, and it isn’t clear whether Judge Vincent Gaughn ruled against the defense plans to have her tell of his past behavior.
Van Dyke was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery. He was sentenced to just under seven years in prison.
