Civil rights advocates seek special prosecutor in McDonald police shooting

CHICAGO, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Civil rights advocates want a special prosecutor to take over the Laquan McDonald case in Chicago, because they feel the state's attorney is too biased to handle the prosecution of police officer Jason Van Dyke.

Attorneys representing a coalition of community members, activists and relatives of McDonald's made the request during a news conference Tuesday.

State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is in charge of the prosecution, but a group of attorneys -- including Sheila Bedi and Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia -- believe she is too conflicted to handle the case in an objective manner.

Bedi said one conflict in particular is that Alvarez is too "aligned with the Fraternal Order of Police," and a participant in a code of silence among law enforcement officers.

Further, critics say, Alvarez waited more than a year before she charged Van Dyke in the death of 17-year-old McDonald -- who was shot 16 times in 13 seconds on Oct. 20, 2014. Police have said McDonald presented a threat to their safety because he carried a knife and was not compliant with officers' commands.

Critics say Alvarez has lost public confidence because she took so long to file charges. Alvarez moved to file shortly after the November release of dashboard camera footage of the shooting sparked widespread national criticism.

"She lost the confidence of the public when she delayed the charging of Officer Jason Van Dyke for 400 days," Garcia said. "It is clear that any oversight of this case has been mishandled."

Also Tuesday, a petition was filed in Cook County court also asking investigators to look into a possible police coverup in McDonald's death.

"At least 10 officers were at the scene of Laquan's death. At least six filed police reports that were patently false," Bedi, an associate professor at Northwestern University Law School and an attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center, said at Tuesday's news conference. "Others may have engaged in witness intimidation, obstruction of evidence and other crimes."

Other attorneys in the coalition asking for a special prosecutor are Locke Bowman, director of the MacArthur center, and G. Flint Taylor, a founding partner of the People's Law Office.

Several elected officials support the request for a special investigator, including two Illinois members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Alvarez, who is running for re-election this year, has dismissed the need to appoint a special prosecutor in the case -- saying her office has done nothing wrong and maintaining that she would do nothing different if she could start again from the beginning.

"The State's Attorney's Office has spent over a year working hand in hand with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, using the full resources of the most professional and respected investigative agency in the nation to build a meticulous case against Jason Van Dyke," Alvarez said in a statement Tuesday. "Moreover, that case has already resulted in an indictment and has been assigned to ASA Risa Lanier and ASA Lynn McCarthy, two highly skilled prosecutors with vast experience prosecuting violent offenders and complex cases."

"Since Anita Alvarez was elected State's Attorney, she has brought charges against 96 law enforcement officers when those charges were appropriate, and this case is no different," the statement continued. "Jason Van Dyke should be prosecuted by experienced Cook County State's Attorneys using the resources gathered during the thorough joint investigation with federal authorities."

Alvarez's office also questioned the timing of the requests for a special prosecutor, which were made just 28 days before the March 15 primary.

"It's more than a little coincidental that this action is being taken less than 30 days before an election, at a press conference held by the political supporters of a candidate for State's Attorney," the statement said. "If any party with standing wants to make that request and legal arguments that would merit the appointment of a special state's attorney, they should do so in a court of law, not a press conference.

"But it is clear that there is no legal conflict in this case."