Top cop Eddie Johnson under oath: 'Never heard an officer talk about code of silence'
Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson recently said under oath that he was unaware of any “code of silence” in his department that shields officers from the consequences of misconduct.
Johnson offered that assessment during a deposition in lawsuits stemming from Officer Robert Rialmo’s December 2015 shooting of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones. The comments clash with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s admissions, made in his own deposition and a late 2015 speech, that the code exists.
The depositions emerged as the city’s lawyers prepared to go to trial against the LeGrier family on Monday. The case has proven divisive in the 2½ years since Rialmo shot LeGrier, 19, as he approached officers with a baseball bat following a domestic disturbance. Rialmo accidentally struck and killed Jones, 55, a neighbor standing nearby.
Last week, the city reached a proposed $16 million settlement with the Jones estate. There’s been no settlement with the LeGrier family, however.
Emanuel and Johnson sat for the depositions in March after the city’s lawyers lost a battle to prevent either from having to give statements under oath. The depositions had been kept under wraps by a court order, which expired Thursday after the lawyers picked a jury for the trial. The interviews, however, are not expected to be part of the trial.
Attorneys asked both the mayor and the police superintendent about the code of silence, a topic that has surfaced repeatedly as the city attempts to reform the troubled department.
Some context: Jurors in federal court found in 2012 that the code protected a cop who brutally beat a female bartender on camera, and the U.S. Department of Justice found unequivocally in its damning 2017 report on the Police Department that the code existed and that officers lied to protect one another. In addition, three Chicago cops are charged with felonies for allegedly conspiring to cover up the details of the 2014 shooting of African-American teenager Laquan McDonald to protect Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot him 16 times.
Nonetheless, Johnson, who became superintendent in the fallout over McDonald’s shooting, told lawyers in the LeGrier case that he was unsure of the meaning of “code of silence.” Asked repeatedly whether he was aware of any such code, Johnson, a 30-year veteran of the force, said he was not.
“Again, in my personal experience, I've never heard an officer talk about code of silence. I don't know of anyone being trained on a code of silence. That's in my personal experience,” he said.
During Emanuel’s deposition, the mayor was asked multiple times about a post-McDonald shooting video speech where he acknowledged that a “code of silence” existed. While acknowledging his previous statements in the deposition, Emanuel downplayed the extent of such a code.
As part of lawsuit over the police shooting death of Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier, Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a deposition that was recorded. It was released June 14, 2018, after a jury was picked for the trial. He was asked about whether he supported Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s conclusion that Officer Robert Rialmo was justified in firing. (City of Chicago Law Department)
“There’s a lot of good officers, there’s a few bad apples. There’s a lot of — in every profession. And there’s a, what I would refer to sometimes like a knee-jerk reaction to circle the wagons,” Emanuel said. “...There is an attempt sometimes in a profession to protect a colleague versus the highest standards of the Police Department or any other profession for that matter.”
For his part, Johnson said he was aware of Emanuel’s speech.
“I have no opinion about what the mayor said,” Johnson said. “The mayor was speaking from what his experience is. So I really have no opinion about what the mayor said.”
The LeGrier shooting transpired about 4:30 a.m. the day after Christmas 2015 as Rialmo and his partner responded to 911 calls about a disturbance at the apartment in the 4700 block of West Erie Street where LeGrier was staying with his father. LeGrier, apparently plagued by mental health problems, had behaved erratically as a student at Northern Illinois University.
Jones, who lived downstairs, answered the door and pointed police to the second floor. LeGrier then came down some interior stairs with a baseball bat, according to an analysis by State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office, which last year declined to bring criminal charges against Rialmo. As Rialmo backed down the porch stairs, he fired eight times, hitting LeGrier six times, according to prosecutors. Jones, who stood behind the teen during the incident, was shot once in the chest, prosecutors wrote.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability ruled the shooting unjustified and recommended Rialmo be fired, but Johnson disagreed and determined that the officer was defending himself in a dangerous situation. Rialmo remains on desk duty as the Chicago Police Board decides whether to fire him. Joel Brodsky, Rialmo’s attorney, has said his client was justified in firing in self-defense.
Johnson’s deposition came during a significant moment for the case — months after COPA had recommended Rialmo be fired and seven days before the superintendent issued an 11-page letter laying out a detailed refutation of the disciplinary agency’s findings. Still, during the deposition a week before his letter was dated, Johnson said he had not read key elements of COPA’s findings.
“So I review the totality of all the information provided. It's being reviewed now. So I'm not prepared to comment one way or another,” Johnson told attorneys.
Emanuel’s deposition came days after the media first reported Johnson’s disagreement with COPA. Lawyers tried to get the mayor to offer an opinion on the case, but he told the judge he was only familiar with what he had read in newspapers about the competing rulings. Emanuel and Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel balked at having the mayor read Johnson’s letter during the deposition in an attempt to keep the ongoing review of the Rialmo case free of review from the mayor, which Judge James O’Hara allowed.
As part of lawsuit over the police shooting death of Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a videotaped deposition. It was released June 14, 2018 after a jury was picked for the trial. He was asked about the city’s lawyers filing and quickly withdrawing a lawsuit that sought to shift blame and some financial liability for Jones’ death from the city onto LeGrier’s estate. (City of Chicago Law Department)
“My concern as the mayor is I walk out of here, this process hasn’t ended,” Emanuel told the judge. “I’ve been very clear from the beginning of when we started COPA, it was going to have an independent Chinese wall. … And I walk out of here, soon hopefully, and I’m back to being mayor, a case has not ended yet.”
Lawyers also asked Emanuel about the suit the city’s lawyers filed late last year that sought to shift blame and some financial liability for Jones' death from the city onto LeGrier's estate. After the Tribune reported on the suit a few hours after it was filed, the city quickly dropped it. Emanuel apologized, saying he did not know of the litigation beforehand but found it "callous."
During the deposition, Emanuel did not directly answer questions as to whether he ordered lawyers to drop the suit and said the questions would be better put to Siskel.
Asked why he felt it was insensitive for the city to sue LeGrier’s estate, Emanuel said, “Look, I’m not a — I’m not a lawyer, as I think we’ve well established by now, and I don’t understand the litigation process.”
