City Hall lawyers made the rare move of apologetically withdrawing a request for sanctions against a lawyer in federal court Friday, following the public release of video of a botched police raid that roiled the city this week.
Faith leaders are expected to further address the issue during a news conference later Friday afternoon.
The city sought sanctions Monday and also tried to persuade U.S. District Judge John Tharp to order CBS Channel 2 not to broadcast the video of the infamous raid on Anjanette Young’s home. But in a filing Friday, city lawyers acknowledged their move against CBS “was a mistake.”
They also withdrew their request for sanctions — which they insist was targeted only toward Young attorney Keenan Saulter — but wrote, “we take very seriously our responsibility as officers of the court and were very concerned that a violation of a court order had occurred.”
“Nonetheless, at Mayor [Lori] Lightfoot’s urging, we believe that it is appropriate to withdraw our motion for sanctions against Attorney Saulter,” they wrote. “The Mayor believes and we agree that we should give Attorney Saulter the benefit of the doubt that he did not appreciate that the court’s confidentiality order continued in full force and effect, even after the voluntary dismissal of the case in March 2020.”
The filing came from Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner by Deputy Corporation Counsel Caroline Fronczak and Assistant Corporation Counsel Nathan Shine.
Nearly a dozen officers went to Young’s home in February 2019 to execute a search warrant, though they were acting on bad information. Young could be heard on the video telling the officers — more than 40 times — that they were in the wrong home.
Young, a social worker, was getting ready for bed at the time and was naked when officers came inside. The encounter was captured on an officer’s body-worn camera and was broadcast by CBS earlier this week.
The city turned over the video footage to Young and her attorneys amid a federal lawsuit stemming from the raid, though a protective order had been in place to prevent it from being shared.
