A Chicago police sergeant who supervised the botched investigation into the death of David Koschman — who was punched to death in 2004 by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard “R.J.” Vanecko — has been promoted to lieutenant.
Sam Cirone had faced a one-year suspension over the controversial case that was first uncovered by the Chicago Sun-Times — but the 29-year veteran is still moving up the ranks, a department spokesman confirmed Saturday.
In 2019, the Chicago Police Board found Cirone guilty on five counts of violating department rules in the investigation, but instead of a suspension, the board only slapped him with a reprimand.
“Sergeant Cirone failed as a supervisor, but his role in this investigation and his responsibility for its failures is clearly less than that of the actual detectives and those above him,” the board’s 30-page ruling said.
Koschman’s death had been called an unsolved homicide for years, until a Sun-Times public records request in January 2011 spurred the police department to order a new investigation less than five months before Daley retired as mayor.
Cirone supervised detectives James Gilger and Nick Spanos, who spent two months on that reinvestigation. Their report agreed with the original findings that Daley’s nephew acted in self-defense when he threw the punch that caused Koschman’s death. No charges were filed.
But a Sun-Times investigation cast doubt on the police probes, and a Cook County judge appointed Dan K. Webb as a special prosecutor in the case. That led to Daley’s nephew being charged with involuntary manslaughter. Vanecko pleaded guilty and served 60 days in prison.
Details on Cirone’s assignment as lieutenant weren’t immediately available.
