Retired federal judge, outside law firm to investigate botched CPD raid, mayor says

Anjanette Young, victim of a botched raid by the Chicago Police Department in 2019, tears up as she speaks to the press outside the Chicago Police Department headquarters last week. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced retired federal Judge Ann Claire Williams and Chicago-based law firm Jones Day will lead an outside investigation of the botched Chicago police raid on the home of social worker Anjanette Young in 2019.

Video from the raid at the home of Anjanette Young shows her pleading with police officers, telling them they were in the wrong home, as she was handcuffed and naked.

City Council members learned of the outside investigation Tuesday just minutes before two Council committees — Health and Human Relations, and Public Safety — held a joint hearing to address search CPD warrant procedures.

“Her mandate will include every relevant department, including the Mayor’s Office,” Lightfoot said in the letter announcing the investigation. “We want a review of the procedures and process in place that allowed this incident and subsequent actions to unfold as they did.”

Williams is of counsel at Jones Day, and Lightfoot assured Williams that she and the firm will have the “full cooperation” of the city.

“She will follow the facts where they lead. The results of her investigation will be shared with you and the public.” Lightfoot said.

In the letter, the mayor said she still supports an investigation by Inspector General Joe Ferguson and has directed her staff to cooperate with his team in every way.

Young was getting ready for bed and naked when nearly a dozen officers broke down her door to execute a search warrant — a warrant authorized on bad information. She was immediately handcuffed, and officers failed to properly cover her body.

Young pleaded with officers and told them, more than 40 times, they were in the wrong home.

A screenshot from body-camera video of a police raid in 2019 at the home of social worker Anjanette Young. The police were in the wrong home.

The encounter was captured on police body-worn camera and came to light during a CBS Channel 2 broadcast. The event took place in February 2019 but the city fought to prevent the broadcast of the video, and took legal action against Young.

After backlash, a request for sanctions against Young’s attorney was dropped.

“There are many things that must be done to right the wrong for Ms. Young individually and I am prepared to do so, swiftly,” Lightfoot said.

Ann Claire Williams (right), then still a judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, led a discussion with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University in 2017. Williams was announced Tuesday as the person who will lead an outside investigation of a botched Chicago Police Department raid at the home of a social worker in 2019.