A coalition of civil rights attorneys and Chicago community leaders believe that the Cook County state's attorney is not credible to head the investigation of Laquan McDonald's shooting. The group has formally asked through a court petition that a special prosecutor lead the case.
The petition alleges that Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has special ties with the police force and the officers' union creating a conflict of interest, Chicago Tribune reports. The coalition suspects that her closeness with the Chicago police union is prohibiting her to prosecute Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is charged in Laquan McDonald's shooting in 2014. Alvarez was also criticized for her failure to charge police officers who have committed crimes.
"We make this request because Anita Alvarez cannot discharge her duties to the people because she is so aligned with the Fraternal Order of Police," said Sheila Bedi, an attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center and law professor at Northwestern University, Chicago Business reported.
Alvarez denied the allegations claiming there's no conflict of interest in the Laquan McDonald's shooting. She also dismissed the claims of her political opponents telling she only issued first-degree murder charges to Van Dyke after a judge ordered the release of a camera video of the shooting incident. The coalition said that Van Dyke was charged only 13 months after the 17-year-old's death, according to Washington Times. The group claimed that a special prosecutor should handle the case because Alvarez has lost the confidence of the public.
"It is clear that any oversight of this case has been mishandled," former Chicago mayoral candidate Jesus G. "Chuy" Garcia said, adding the allegations that there's possible tampering with audio and video of the incident. "It is clear that there is much that needs to be investigated."
The video of Laquan McDonald's shooting was released in November. It showed that Van Dyke open fired and killed McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014. The police officer shot the black teenager 16 times. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of McDonald. Meanwhile, Alvarez said that she's pursuing to handle the case. She firmly dismissed the allegations involving her close alignment with the law enforcement.
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