CHICAGO — A Chicago police sergeant has filed a federal lawsuit towards the town, Prepare dinner County, and a handful of presidency workers, together with State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx, claiming that he was wrongfully prosecuted for an on-duty capturing. It’s the second wrongful prosecution not too long ago filed by CPD officers acquitted of expenses filed by Foxx’s workplace.
Christopher Liakopoulos was acquitted of all expenses one yr in the past. Now, he’s claiming prosecutors “conspired” with one other CPD sergeant to withhold exculpatory proof from the grand jury that indicted him.
Liakopolous and Officer Ruben Reynoso of CPD’s Main Accident Investigations Unit had been driving to a coaching session in an unmarked automobile after they came across three males standing close to some closed companies close to 18th and Morgan round 7 a.m. on July 22, 2022.
It was all caught on video:
Throughout an preliminary bond listening to, prosecutor Alyssa Janicki mentioned Liakopolous stopped the automobile, backed as much as the lads, and requested what they had been doing. Whereas speaking with the group, a juvenile and a person walked towards them. The person had a wine bottle and a cellphone in a single hand and nothing in his different hand, Janicki mentioned. However the juvenile wore a cross-body bag and gripped a gun contained in the bag.
Earlier than reaching the officers’ automobile, the juvenile turned and ran away as the opposite man waved on the officers along with his free hand, Janicki claimed.
Each officers fired pictures, hanging the unarmed man, who survived. In the meantime, the juvenile, who was operating throughout the road, turned and fired a number of rounds towards the officers, Janicki claimed. Each cops shot on the juvenile, however no different accidents had been reported.
A key allegation within the lawsuit: there was no “scientific proof” that linked the bullet that struck the injured man to any particular gun.
Liakopoulos claims the juvenile had a gun in his hand, pointed towards the police automobile after Reynoso displayed his badge. The juvenile approached the automobile and made threatening remarks, directing the officers’ consideration to his weapon, the lawsuit alleges.
Each officers fired “inside break up seconds” of seeing the gun pointed towards their automobile, in response to the submitting.
Throughout her bond court docket presentation, Janicki claimed that video footage “instantly contradicts” the officers’ model of occasions.
The juvenile was charged with tried homicide of the cops 4 days after the capturing. Prosecutors dropped each circumstances fully at some point later.
Liakopoulos claims a CPD sergeant who investigated the capturing informed Janicki and one other prosecutor in her workplace that each officers had been “in concern for his or her lives” after they fired the pictures as a result of the masked juvenile was approaching them with a gun pointed “instantly at them” whereas Medina was at his facet.
He alleges that the sergeant and each prosecutors “conspired in preparation and presentation” of “deceptive” testimony to the grand jury, which returned true payments towards the officers. The lawsuit claims that the sergeant withheld “inherently intrinsic exculpatory details” from the grand jury that might have resulted in no indictment being accredited.
Foxx is called as a defendant as a result of, Liakopoulos alleges, she personally accredited the submitting of expenses within the case.
The swimsuit seeks compensation for deprivation of liberty with out possible trigger, failure to intervene, conspiracy to violate constitutional rights, malicious prosecution, and infliction of emotional misery.
In June, former Chicago police sergeant Michael Vitellaro sued Foxx and different officers for wrongful prosecution, saying they ignored the regulation and caved to public strain by criminally charging him with detaining a youngster who was along with his son’s not too long ago stolen bike.
Liakopoulos’ lawsuit is out there under.
