Jan. 09--Lawyers for 11 Chicago police officers who claim Mayor Rahm Emanuel removed them from his security detail for political reasons when he took office in 2011 have asked a federal judge to order the mayor to sit for a deposition as part of their ongoing lawsuit.
The officers, who are all white or Hispanic, alleged in a 2012 complaint that Emanuel actively participated in selecting a new security team that included African-American officers with less seniority as well as officers who had volunteered for his campaign.
Lawyers for the demoted officers want to question Emanuel on the record about his involvement in the change. They allege there is evidence that the mayor directed Terry Hillard -- who at the time was the city's interim police superintendent -- to select a "diverse" group and personally took part in meetings to select campaign volunteers to reassign to his around-the-clock police protection.
Emanuel's attorneys have refused to make the mayor available, citing his packed calendar and saying he had no direct knowledge of how outgoing Mayor Richard Daley's security team was reassigned.
"We have no reason to conclude that there is any justification for forcing Mayor Emanuel to take many hours away from his busy schedule running the third largest city in the U.S. to prepare and sit for a deposition," Richard Nowak, a lawyer representing the city, wrote in an email last month to the officers' attorneys, according to court records.
But in a filing late Thursday asking U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to order Emanuel's testimony, attorneys for the officers cited a Tribune article from April 2014 detailing how Emanuel had flown out of town more than 50 times in his first two years as mayor, often for non-city related business.
The filing also cited recent Tribune reports that Emanuel had reimbursed the city more than $22,000 for travel unrelated to his job as mayor.
"If Emanuel has time to travel for non-city related business, then a several hour deposition should not be an inconvenience," Jonathan Ksiazek, the lead lawyer for the officers, wrote in the filing.
Leinenweber has yet to rule on the deposition request.
Recent history has shown that the legal bar is high to require a sitting mayor to give sworn testimony.
For years, lawyers representing suspects who allegedly were tortured into confessing to crimes by former police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his men sought to depose Daley over whether he was aware of the torture while he was Cook County state's attorney -- a move the city fought tooth and nail.
In 2012, after he had left office, Daley finally was ordered to testify in a federal lawsuit brought by Michael Tillman, who alleged he was tortured into confessing to the 1986 rape and murder of a South Side woman. But Daley's deposition never was taken because the city abruptly settled the case for $5.375 million.
The city has since settled several Burge-related cases without the former mayor ever answering questions under oath.
Daley did give sworn testimony in a Cook County suit over an alleged sweetheart deal with a clout-heavy group of investors to run the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park. In that 2013 question-and-answer session, the former mayor said he couldn't recall when the Park Grill group was picked as the successful bidder.
The lawsuit against Emanuel alleged that the transfers from the mayor's security detail lowered the officers' ranks and significantly reduced their pay and benefits. They are seeking unspecified monetary damages as well as a return to their previous jobs.
The city's Law Department has called the lawsuit "baseless." A spokesman for the department denied that Emanuel or his staff played any part in the hiring of his security team and said the decisions were made by Hillard.
After the lawsuit was filed, Hillard issued a statement defending his actions, saying he consulted security experts and the U.S. Secret Service in putting the team together.
"It was, as it should be, a careful and deliberative process, and at no time were political or any other inappropriate factors considered, period," Hillard said.
Both Hillard and current police Superintendent Garry McCarthy have already been deposed in the case, court records show.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
Twitter @jmetr22b
