In the Name of Justice: Chicago's Legal Crusaders

In a town where the topics of the day revolve around sports, politics, corruption and the rising toll of gun violence victims—most of our news soundbites are coming from the attorneys that represent the families of these victims.

Larry Rogers, Jr.

Power, Rogers & Smith, P.C.

Victim: Bettie Jones

Last month, on the morning after Christmas, 55-year old Bettie Jones received a phone call from her upstairs neighbor to let the Chicago Police officers enter the building due to a domestic dispute with his 17-year old son, Quintonio LeGrier. Upon entering the West Side residence, Chicago police officers fatally shot LeGrier who allegedly charged at them with a baseball bat and accidentally killing Jones in the process. What happened next would shake an already fragile city, forcing two families to plan funeral services for their loved ones during the holiday season.

Larry Rogers, Jr. is not your ordinary attorney, his reputation as a trial attorney is as prodigious as his record for winning cases for his clients. In addition to being a part of the legal team on the Sandra Bland case, he was brought on to represent the family of Bettie Jones to filing a civil lawsuit against the City of Chicago for the accidental death, caused by the fatal shots from a Chicago police officer.

Although, he has worked on previous police misconduct and cases challenging the City of Chicago, the Jones cases is a delicate situation coming off the heels of the Laquan McDonald video tape release to the public.

Rogers explained. “It's generally my practice to try to avoid filing suit before a funeral. I don't like to do that – personally because the family is grieving. When we didn't get information as timely as I thought and when another lawsuit was filed, I didn't want something to happen in that situation that would impact they're case. So, I filed that Monday and the funeral was Wednesday. That way I could be sure that nothing was occurring that would impact the case, that I wouldn't be able to interject,” He said.

Before Jones was laid to rest, Rogers spoke with the mayor's office and the city's general counsel because it was important to look at key evidence such as 911 dispatch calls, police audio and video footage as well as neighborhood surveillance.

Rogers said, “I think is important they reached out to me in the context of the mayor wanting to meet with the family to relay condolences. I told them what I wanted which was some information. So, they gave me some information – verbally. I had requested written information which they had not produced before that meeting – still have not produced. I think largely because of the FOP contract.”

“My investigation at this point is requesting things from the department and also doing an independent investigation of witnesses going to the scene, hiring expert witnesses. Again, there are evidence of bullet entry points on both sides of the door which suggest the officers are a distance away from the door. The bodies were found inside the door with her lying on her back, the boy lying face down. There is factual indications, that she was summoned by a doorbell or knock. There are factual witnesses that established that the officer was as far back as the parkway beyond the sidewalk. As well, factual indications, the shell casing from the officer's weapon from the bullets that he fired are as far back as the sidewalk.”

He breaks down the process of seeking fair damages when representing the family of Bettie Jones against the City of Chicago. It's not just about cutting a check but understanding the nature of the relationships of the children, along with the value of worth earned by the deceased.

“There are different divisions within the court system, one of which is referred to as smalls claims court. Cases under $15,000 go into the municipal division of the courts. The cases that are in the law division, is a minimum of $50,000 and you have to sign an affidavit attesting to the fact that the claim is worth $50,000 or more and you have to plead that. The plead actually says is that claim is valued well in excess of $50,000 but the press read, that you're asking for $50,000,” Rogers said, “You can't identify the value of the claim until you get through the discovery process to identify the nature of the liability. Then the nature of the relationship that you're claiming. That requires you to look at the income that was earned, how much income would've been earned over a lifetime which would require engaging an economist.”

Through the medical examiner's report, the name of a Chicago police officer, Robert Rialmo was identified as the officer who accidentally killed Bettie Jones. Although, neither the Chicago Police Department or IPRA has confirmed the officer's identity—having it released through the media is a testament of the system's ongoing non-transparency.

Cannon Lambert

Karchmar & Lambert, P.C.

Victim: Sandra Bland

A month ago, a Waller County grand jury did not return any indictments against any officers in the death of Sandra Bland. It's been seven months since Bland was found dead in her jail cell while she detained for three days, allegedly arrested for assaulting Texas State Trooper, Brian Encinia.

Since then, the Sandra Bland's voice of advocacy continues to ring loud from the grave and her legal champion proudly continues to fight for family in seeking justice.

Attorney Cannon Lambert and his family attends the same church as members of the Bland family. He was first contacted by a mutual friend when the family was contacted by Texas jail officials of Bland's death.

“They had made contact with Ms. Geneva and had made a series of assurances to her. I went down there to be her eyes and ears. I was relying on the follow through on those assurances. Preliminarily, the rangers met with us and they were cooperative in terms of communicating with her. They told us that they were going to see what happened to her. We came with more questions than answers. They did help us in the way of letting us see the dash-cam video ahead of when it was released to the media. Once that happened, then things kind of shut down,” Lambert said. Once we got Sandy back home, the day we got her back for her home-going, we got correspondence the Waller County DA--saying we needed to preserve her for additional medical tests had to be run on her which is unheard of because you don't release a body until they needed to what they had to do.”

With officer Encinia charged with perjury—a misdemenor and fired—this is not enough in the light of justice for the family.

He said, “We're trying to obtain as much information as we can that would help support the theories that we have in our case. It has to do with the fact, there's certain things that we're looking for like the police reports. These would contain investigations that have been done already by people that were looking into this situation right after it happened. They would've arguably spoken to witnesses and we're going to want to know what those witnesses said so that we can disposed them,” Cannon said.

Lambert strongly affirms certain bias towards this case was tainted by the actions of Waller County special prosecutor, Darrell Jordan in which an independent investigation was formed on this case. “It's not an independent nature of the special prosecutor body that was put together for us—it is a farce. Darrell Jordan before he was appointed a special prosector on Sandy's case was on facebook making all kind of posts that was pro-establishment,” He said. “How is that something that suggest independence? It's not when the District Attorney of Waller County said that Sandy was not a model person before he appointed these folks. It was all for show.”

He has grown close to the Bland family and admires their strength in fighting for truth and justice. Both Bland's mom Geneva Read-Veal and sister, Sharon Cooper continue to publicaly speak out in light of the latest developments. Lambert has worked on previous police misconduct cases and understands all too well, the cultural disconnect law enforcement has had with the Black community.

“When you have attorney that can relate to what you're experiences are because either they've gone through it themselves or their father, son, daughter or relatives. We talk about these things at the table – we prepare our children on how they need to interface with the police because of the risks,” Lambert discussed.

“It doesn't matter who you are or what you're gender is – that's what this case is about. The final frontier. They'll do anything to anybody--that's the case in this particular circumstance, that's the fear that people have. You see how she got treated on the streets – you just see that they don't care.”

Sam Adam, Jr.

Sam Adam, Jr. Law Office

Victim: Bettie Jones

Sam Adam, Jr. has become one of the most familiar faces on the legal and media landscape, representing past clients—superstar, R. Kelly and former Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich. Currently, sharing co-counsel with Chicago attorney, Larry Rogers, Jr. representing the family of Bettie Jones. His style of staying in front of the camera, may be considered vain to some but Adam considers it strategic.

“The media should be a tool to show what is going on with the government and citizens. This should be brought to light. The greatest disinfectant in the world is sun light. That is what I'm trying to use the media for in all of these cases – to bring in sunlight to root out all of the evil that is taking place in the areas of the government,” said Adam.

The ongoing delays of the city's law department, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) have created a multiple of delays helping push through the process of receiving answers for the victim's families.

Adam says, “They are interacting with citizens and taking that interaction to use it for their own advantage and disadvantage instead of for the citizens it should be protecting. Bettie Jones is that case. This is a 55-year old woman who did everything right, she was a good mother, she was a good grandmother, she was a type of woman who went to the door to answer the call of duty so that she could let in some police officers. She was shot down for it.”

Brian Coffman Coffman Law Offices, P.C.

Mark Smolens Mottweiler & Smolens, LLP

Victim: Cedrick Chatman

Last week, a federal judge order the release of the video tape of another fatal police shooting of a 17-year old Black male—Cedrick Chatman. The shooting took place three years ago, across the street from South Shore High School as the victim was running from police officers. Officer Kevin Fry fatally shot the unarmed teenager, who was carrying a black iPhone case.

Brian Coffman and Mark Smolens are the attorneys representing, the Chatman family in the wrongful death lawsuit against the city. Coffin who has represented similar police misconduct cases in Chicago and around the country is disturbedd on how a fist fight with a man trying to sell a stolen phone to Chatman and his associates could result in senseless death.

He said, “Mr. Rankin, the alleged victim that was beat up in this case. He was in the neighborhood to sell a stolen cell phone to Akeem Clark and Martel Odom. During that process, a disagreement occurred as far as the price or what was going to happen. They got upset and started beating him up with their fists and their feet--no knives, no guns. They told Mr. Chatman to take his car because they felt it was some type of neighborhood justice,” Coffman explained. “Mr. Chatman jumped in his car and started driving away. Mr. Rankin himself even told the 911 operator these guys didn't have any knives or guns--they kicked and punched him. That was the extent of it--he was able to run away and that was never communicated to another officer or anyone else.”

Although both Clark and Odom was 10 blocks away from when the crime occurred, under Illinois law, anyone who sets in motion a chain of events that results in the death of another individual to be charged with murder. It clear on the videotape, both Officer Fry and Toth shot at Chatman, bringing him down in broad daylight at the busy insection of 75th & Jeffrey Blvd.

“This is case that could potentially effect every other case across the country. You have a federal judge making comments how this investigation has been handled. How the City of Chicago has handled on practices of filing a motion and opposition three years ago not wanting the video to be released. It can have a ripple effect on how they handle police misconduct cases. Times have changed. The same thing that we're doing is not going to work anymore and people are not going to stand for it.”

“The next steps in our case, we're in the process of scheduling the disposition of Lorenzo Davis-the former IPRA investigator fired as a result of his findings in this case by Scott Ando. Once his disposition is complete, we're going to be back in court in March. At that time, we'll be getting a trial date set by Judge Gappleton (look up proper spelling).”

“The unfortunate thing in our case is that we have numerous levels of cover-up from the inaccuracy of the police report to even the medical examiner's report. How Mr. Chatman was stopped in the streets, pointing a black object at the officers. The video is proof what you see. We have issues of how these cases are reported. You have Pat Camden of the FOP, making these type of statements which are entirely baseless but FOP take it as word,” Coffman said. “The police officers need to be re-trained on when and how to use deadly force and when that's necessary. When you look at cases like Laquan McDonald and Ronald Johnson, was it really necessary to use deadly force and apprehend someone. In this case, you have a kid running away and wasn't clear that he had anything in his hand as he was running away. The police officer to use deadly weapon – totally irresponsible. That's the real problem with this case.”

“The only way to get people's attention is sometimes to shock the system.”

Originally Published by The Chicago Defender January 2016