CHICAGO (CN) - Chicago police shot and killed a man's dog in front of his kids and they refuse to turn over records about the incident, he claims in a Cook County lawsuit.
Antonie Glasper's attorney, Torreya Hamilton, said Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers showed up at his house in August 2015 and busted down his front door while he was home with his 9-year-old and 20-year-old autistic children.
It "appears that they had a search warrant," Hamilton said, although they never showed it to Glasper.
Police officers insisted Glasper let go of his dog instead of putting it in another room, and when he did they shot and killed the dog in front of the two kids in their kitchen, Hamilton says.
Glasper was arrested on drug charges but insists no drugs were in his home, and his case was eventually dismissed in criminal court.
According to the Jan. 25 lawsuit, Glasper filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with CPD and the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) for "documents, and audio and video recordings relating to the Chicago police entry and search of plaintiff's home, the detention of plaintiff and his family, the shooting and killing of this family's dog, and the unlawful arrest and prosecution of plaintiff."
OEMC eventually sent a denial of Glasper's request, claiming "exemptions based on an alleged open and ongoing investigation by the Chicago Police Department, which is a separate public body," according to the complaint.
Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama ruled in November that OEMC's reasoning is invalid, and ordered that CPD release a police dash camera video of the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
"This is the same type of FOIA exemption that was claimed by the city and rejected by Judge Valderrama in the Laquan McDonald FOIA lawsuit," Glasper's 6-page complaint states.
Glasper's lawsuit adds that the charges against him were dropped in October, so "it is not likely that any Chicago police investigation concerning this incident is on-going."
He claims CPD never responded to his FOIA request.
Hamilton said her office is "not getting adequate responses" to any FOIA requests and CPD and OEMC are "being told not to respond by the [city's] legal department."
"It's shameful," Hamilton added, and "it's just the City of Chicago that's doing this." She said that, although Mayor Rahm Emanuel has promised more transparency, these departments are "being the opposite of transparent."
Glasper wants a court order forcing the City of Chicago, CPD and OEMC to produce the records he asked for, which Hamilton says are part of discovery for a possible federal lawsuit.
The city's legal department told Courthouse News via email that it would look into the lawsuit, but it has not yet responded to a request for comment.
This story was originally published by Courthouse News.
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