Feb. 17--A federal judge has squelched attempts to force Mayor Rahm Emanuel to give sworn testimony about the so-called "code of silence" within the Chicago Police Department as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging a police cover-up of a 2007 off-duty road rage incident.
Lawyers for Nicole Tomaskovic had asked U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to order the mayor to sit for a deposition in Tomaskovic's lawsuit alleging the city has a de facto policy of covering up the bad actions of officers.
A federal jury in December found that Officer William Szura was acting within the scope of his duties with the city when he used excessive force on Tomaskovic while off duty during a traffic altercation on the shoulder of the Stevenson Expressway that turned violent.
But in a hearing Tuesday, the judge denied the deposition request and quashed a subpoena that Tomaskovic's lawyer had sent to Emanuel's office, court records show.
The request to depose Emanuel came after the mayor, amid the deepening scandal over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, condemned a "code of silence" within the Police Department in a December address to the City Council.
"We cannot ask citizens in crime-ravaged neighborhoods to break the code of silence if we continue to allow a code of silence to exist within our own Police Department," Emanuel said.
The city had argued in a court filing last week that the mayor couldn't possibly have knowledge relevant to the case since the incident occurred four years before he took office.
The city also said allowing the mayor's deposition in Tomaskovic's case would set a "dangerous precedent" that could lead to him being forced to give sworn testimony in a wide range of lawsuits, eating up a substantial amount of his valuable time.
"Given the frequency with which plaintiffs make boilerplate assertions of a 'code of silence' in federal court," the filing argued, "Mayor Emanuel would likely be unable to take on any of his actual duties as mayor of Chicago as a result of the time he would need to devote to such undertaking."
Szura, a longtime mounted police officer who has since retired from the force, was accused of attacking three women -- Tomaskovic, Kelly Fuery and Debra Sciortino -- after he pulled their car over on the side of the expressway while off duty as they were headed home from the Chicago Pride Parade.
The jury found in favor of Szura on all counts except for Tomaskovic's claim of excessive force.
The legal hurdles to require a sitting mayor to give sworn testimony are high. Last year, lawyers for 11 Chicago police officers who claim Emanuel removed them from his security detail for political reasons sought to require the mayor sit for a deposition, but U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber denied the request.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
