Police Board To Decide Fate Of 4 Officers Accused Of Cover-Up In Laquan McDonald Shooting
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Four Chicago police officers accused of covering up the circumstances of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald face possible firing, as the Chicago Police Board begins a hearing on their case on Wednesday.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson moved to fire patrol officers Daphne Sebastian, Ricardo Viramontes, and Janet Mondragon, and Sgt. Stephen Franko in 2016, after an investigation by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.
The inspector general had recommended firing 11 officers overall for their roles in the McDonald shooting and alleged cover-up, including Van Dyke, but Johnson spared one of those officers, and five others retired or resigned before they could face disciplinary action.
Sebastian and Viramontes are accused of lying when they stated in police reports that McDonald still posed a threat after he fell to the ground as Van Dyke shot him 16 times in October 2014.
Mondragon allegedly told a detective the night of the shooting that McDonald was waving his knife at Van Dyke. Two years later, she told the inspector general's office she didn't see the shooting, because she was parking her squad car.
Franko is accused of signing off on falsified police reports.
The hearing on the disciplinary cases is expected to last through Friday.
In January, three different former and current police officers were acquitted of conspiracy charges in the alleged cover-up.
Van Dyke is currently serving a nearly 7-year sentence for second-degree murder in McDonald's death. He is being held at a federal prison in New York. He was transferred there from a federal prison in Connecticut, after he was attacked on his first day at the prison in Danbury.
