CHICAGO _ Lawyers for two of the four Chicago police officers fighting for their jobs over the alleged cover-up of the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald argued Wednesday that they did not lie by reporting that the black teen still posed a threat after he was shot and fell to the street.
In the first day of a disciplinary hearing, attorneys for Officers Daphne Sebastian and Ricardo Viramontes said an FBI-enhanced, slow-motion version of the infamous police dashboard camera video of the shooting backs up their claim.
The attorneys did not elaborate in their opening statements at the Chicago Police Board hearing on how the slow-motion version proved what the regular-speed video doesn't show.
In their statements to investigators for the city Inspector General's Office, Sebastian reported that McDonald continued to move on the street as Officer Jason Van Dyke emptied his gun, shooting the teen 16 times. Viramontes took it a step further, telling investigators he saw McDonald try to rise up with a knife still in his hand.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson is seeking to fire Sebastian, Viramontes as well as Officer Janet Mondragon and Sgt. Stephen Franko for falsifying or approving police reports that exaggerated the threat posed by McDonald, who was high on PCP as he refused police commands to drop a knife while walking away from police on a Southwest Side street.
A lawyer prosecuting the case on the city's behalf contended in his opening remarks that the video of the shooting proved that the four officers lied in their statements to a police detective that night.
The officers "had the responsibility to tell the truth, the whole unvarnished truth," attorney John Gibbons told the hearing officer.
Mondragon had claimed not to see the shooting because she was putting her squad car in park, Gibbons also said, but the video footage shows that the police SUV was still moving.
Their disciplinary hearing is the latest chapter in the scandal following two historic criminal trials that saw a Cook County jury convict Van Dyke of second-degree murder and a judge clear three other officers of cover-up charges in a controversial ruling. Van Dyke, who is white, continued to fire after McDonald fell mortally wounded to the street.
None of the four officers fighting their dismissals were charged criminally.
In his opening statement, Sebastian's lawyer, Brian Sexton, said there was "a big difference between a lie and someone's perception."
"She doesn't try to embellish. She doesn't try to exaggerate," Sexton said in a booming voice while gesturing heavily. "She's not looking at Van Dyke and (his partner). She's looking at the threat she sees."
"Stand in her shoes. Use your common sense," Sexton later said. "It sure as hell doesn't amount to a lie."
Jennifer Russell, Viramontes' lawyer, said the officer spoke to a detective at the shooting scene for maybe less than a minute about what he saw. He also had other responsibilities at the crime scene, including gathering all the names of officers who responded and their star numbers.
