May 31--Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday insisted the city settled a police whistleblower lawsuit for $2 million because the case could have been costlier at trial -- not because he was trying to avoid having to testify on the stand about the Police Department's code of silence.
"There was a settlement here that would actually save the taxpayers money," Emanuel said at an unrelated event at a North Side high school. "I have spoken on the issue of the code of silence. I have not been quiet about it."
Still, city attorneys are reluctant to have mayors take the stand, fearing lawyers could broaden the scope of their questioning during cross examination to take in other controversial topics, or that the city's top official could say something under oath that got him in trouble or set a legal precedent going forward.
City attorneys sought to prevent Emanuel from having to testify in the federal trial, but U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman said he could be subpoenaed to take the stand in light of the fact the mayor acknowledged the code of silence existed. Jury selection was set to begin Tuesday, but the city instead settled the case.
Emanuel said the settlement was reached because of the specifics of the suit. "It wasn't about me. It was about the case," he said. "I'm up front (about the code of silence). There's no way you can miss it.
"Everybody knows where I stand about the code of silence," said Emanuel, a reference to a December speech to a special meeting of the Chicago City Council during the height of the fallout over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
The mayor, who's seeking to rebuild badly shaken public trust in the Chicago Police Department, brought up his handling of settlements in Jon Burge police torture cases and his address to the City Council in the aftermath of the release of the McDonald shooting video as evidence he has tackled the code of silence.
But he's also trying to bolster Police Department morale. And so Emanuel added that 99 percent of Chicago cops are doing the job the right way, while he's putting reforms in place to deal with the 1 percent who aren't.
The suit was brought by Chicago police Officers Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria. They worked with the FBI for two years to help bring down an allegedly corrupt group of officers in the department. But after two officers were convicted and sent to prison, Spalding and Echeverria alleged in the federal suit that they were blackballed by the department, labeled as "rats" by superiors, given do-nothing jobs and had their lives threatened.
Emanuel spoke to reporters about the settlement Tuesday at his second media availability of the day, a rare twofer that was scheduled after the lawsuit settlement was announced and the mayor already had taken questions at another event Tuesday morning.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
