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Chicago City Wire

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

W.J. Kennedy News

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Suspended white Chicago teacher files federal race discrimination complaint against Board of Education and fellow teachers over hanging doll incident

By W.J. Kennedy | Oct 13, 2023

A suspended Chicago teacher, who is white, has filed a nine-count complaint in federal court against the Board of Education and four of his former colleagues, all Black, alleging battery and race discrimination surrounding an incident where a Bears football doll was found hanging in his classroom at the Whitney M. Young Magnet High School.

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Future of 'torture relief commission' in balance as judge weights arguments challenging its authority

By W.J. Kennedy | Oct 11, 2023

On October 20, Will County Judge David Carlson is expected to rule whether a commission created to investigate claims of police torture, the Torture Review & Relief Commission (TIRC), has the authority to refer cases, many of them decades-old murder cases, for new evidentiary hearings.

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Kim Foxx’s office sued for not complying with 'exoneration' FOIA request

By W.J. Kennedy | Oct 5, 2023

Chicago City Wire has filed two complaints against the Cook County State’s Attorney’s (CCSAO) office for not responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking details into why the office exonerated once convicted murderers, including two convicted of the brutal 1998 murder of a husband and wife and the kidnapping of their children in Bucktown.

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Anti-police movement suffers setbacks in court

By W.J. Kennedy | Oct 3, 2023

The recent acquittal of two police officers charged with unjustifiably shooting an unarmed man is a victory not just for them and their families, but also strengthens the argument that dozens of wrongful conviction cases targeting police are worth fighting in the courts over settling for multi-million-dollar amounts.

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Suspended judge could be key witness at criminal trials of former Cook County prosecutors

By W.J. Kennedy | Sep 27, 2023

Cook County Judge Williams Hooks, suspended in late June from judicial duties, could be called to testify in the criminal trials of former assistant prosecutors Andrew Horvat and Nick Trutenko scheduled to begin in mid-October, sources say.

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COPA’s competency, authority again questioned over investigation into CPD migrant sex abuse allegations

By W.J. Kennedy | Sep 25, 2023

After three months, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has yet to find a witness to an alleged incident of sexual misconduct involving a Chicago Police officer and a migrant, leading former CPD Chief of Detectives Gene Roy to question COPA’s investigatory competency.

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Former city detective to mount pushback campaign against ‘fleecing of taxpayers’ in wrongful conviction payouts

By W.J. Kennedy | Sep 18, 2023

City Council’s approval this week of a $25 million payout to two men convicted of the 1993 murder college basketball star Marshall Morgan Jr. was about all that former Chicago Detective Kenneth Boudreau, who investigated the murder, could take.

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Two convicted murderers on cusp of divvying up $25 million in wrongful conviction settlements

By W.J. Kennedy | Sep 13, 2023

City Council is on the verge of approving a controversial wrongful conviction payout of $25 million to two convicted of the 1993 murder of college basketball start Morgan Marshall Jr. on the South Side.

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Cashless bail transition will be a bumpy one: Sheriff’s Association

By W.J. Kennedy | Sep 1, 2023

The cashless bail era in Illinois begins on September 18, and the transition to first such statewide bail system in the country “won’t be the smooth as advocates hope,” Jim Kaitschuk, Executive Director of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, told Chicago City Wire.

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Trial bar looking to expand scope of public nuisance laws with 'theft' suits against auto makers, expert says

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 30, 2023

Lawsuits recently brought by Chicago and other cities targeting car makers Kia and Hyundai over a surge in car thefts represent the latest attempt by the trial bar to expand the scope of the public nuisance tort, according to legal expert Victor Schwartz.

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What is Kim Foxx hiding? Part Two

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 24, 2023

Kim Foxx has refused to turn over files in the possession of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) covering the criminal prosecutions of two brothers convicted of the 1982 murders of two police officers – files that would help in the defense of a former CCSAO employee named in a wrongful conviction case brought by the surviving brother.

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What is Kim Foxx hiding? Part One

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 23, 2023

Repeated requests of Kim Foxx’s office, and a follow-up request from an attorney, to provide public documents to Chicago City Wire related to dozens of exoneration cases have been ignored.

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Police union requests removal of disciplinary cases from civilian board cops contend is biased

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 18, 2023

An attorney for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 has petitioned the Chicago Police Board, a civilian disciplinary board, to surrender 20 cases for referral to an independent arbitrator, the Chicago Tribune reports.

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As crime surges, a flawed cashless bail system will put 'dangerous and repeat offenders on the streets'

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 17, 2023

The cashless bail era begins in Illinois on September 18, and has so many flaws, former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas writes in a recent commentary, that it will put “dangerous and repeat offenders back on the street.”

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Englewood Four case exemplar of how the legal system is being manipulated: former detective

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 11, 2023

For former homicide Detective Kenneth Boudreau no other case is more an exemplar of the gaming of the criminal justice system than that of Nina Glover, a known prostitute murdered in 1994 in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

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Not hiring police same as defunding them, Vallas says.

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 11, 2023

In a recent commentary, former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas cited record overtime costs for police as a symptom of having too few officers. And, he says, not hiring more police is in effect a way of defunding them.

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Police get big win in proposed changes to disciplinary proceedings

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 7, 2023

Rank-and-file members of the Chicago Police are on the verge of having the final resolution of their more serious disciplinary cases moved out from under two civilian oversight boards -- both of which the police union, FOP Lodge 7, have accused of harboring anti-police bias -- and under the authority of an independent arbitrator where police believe they will receive fairer treatment.

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Latest wrongful conviction suit’s claim of police frame-up 'completely contrived,' former detective says

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 3, 2023

A news story covering the latest in wrongful conviction complaints mimics past narratives driving earlier wrongful conviction lawsuits: bad cops beat confessions out of innocent people.

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'Silence alarming' over expected impact of cashless bail system, says crime survivors advocate

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 2, 2023

On September 18, the cashless bail era in Illinois begins and Patricia Wenskunas, Founder/CEO of Crime Survivors Inc. is alarmed over the silence surrounding the impact the new law will almost certainly have on crime.

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Pritzker, Foxx and a wrongful conviction lawsuit don’t prove innocence

By W.J. Kennedy | Aug 1, 2023

The wrongful conviction lawsuit filed last week by Marilyn Mulero doesn’t make her innocent of the 1992 execution style murder of a rival gang member, a crime she confessed to and spent 27 years in prison for.