Using court documents, the Chicago Sun-Times reconstructed the timeline of events that led to the eventual settlement of the case for $5 million. The payment was split 45-55 with McDonald's mother and sister and lawyers receiving 40 and 33 percent from each, respectively.
Reporters Tim Novak and Mick Dumke show the settlement was negotiated with lawyers for the family and city and approved by the Chicago City Council within about five weeks from March 6 to April 15. A key date on the timeline is Nov. 21, 2014, a month and a day after McDonald's shooting and the day on which lawyer Jeffrey J. Neslund subpoenaed the Chicago Police Department for the videos and reports that would propel the case into the national spotlight a year later.
At the time Neslund and fellow attorney Michael D. Robbins sought the dashcam videos, the official line on McDonald's death was that he had been shot after lunging at officers and threatening them with a knife.
Following are some highlights from the story. Novak and Dumke's full story is here.
Nov. 7. 2014 -- McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, hires attorneys Jeffrey J. Neslund and Michael D. Robbins to investigate her son's death. She signs an agreement to give them 40 percent of any settlement or judgment. Lawyers in civil rights and wrongful-death cases involving the police typically get about 33 percent...
Nov. 21, 2014 -- Neslund subpoenas the police for videos, reports and other records of the shooting and the city Office of Emergency Management and Communications for audio dispatches and 911 calls. Once the materials start coming in, Neslund and Robbins decide they have a case.
March 6, 2015 -- Neslund and Robbins lay out their case in a letter to the city, pointing out that McDonald was shot 16 times...
"This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting itself as well as the City's pattern, practice and procedures in rubberstamping fatal police shootings of African Americans as 'justified,' " they write. "This particular shooting can be fairly characterized as a gratuitous execution as well as a hate crime."
March 23, 2015 -- Robbins chastises city officials in a letter to (city lawyer Thomas) Platt. "We were dismayed to learn that your office shared information from our letter with members of the police department."
The lawyer writes that his investigation found the police had falsified accounts of the shooting. "One witness whom the police reports alleged did not see the shooting in fact told multiple police officers that he saw the shooting, and it was 'like an execution.'...
The Chicago City Council approved the settlement on a 47-0 vote on April 15. On Aug. 26, Cook County Associate Judge Susan Coleman approved the $5 million settlement, with 55 percent going to McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, and 45 percent to his sister. Coleman earlier had ruled that McDonald's father was not eligible for a share.
The Sun-Times also describes the process by which the now-infamous dashcam video of McDonald's killing came to be released and why Neslund and Robbins declined to make it public.
It's an important look at the anatomy of a case whose story is only beginning to be told. Read the complete article here.
And in the wake of shooting and the subsequent protests, Reboot Illinois' Madeleine Doubek looks at whether the repercussions will lead to something constructive. You can read her opinion piece here.
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