Former Police Officer Jason Van Dyke Transferred To Custody In Maryland
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke, convicted in the death of Laquan McDonald, has been moved to a correctional center in Maryland, after he was transferred from a federal prison in New York.
An employee at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services confirmed Van Dyke was being held at an intake facility in Baltimore, awaiting transfer to a Maryland state prison.
Van Dyke has been shuttled between several facilities since he was sentenced to nearly 7 years in prison for second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
After he was convicted in October 2018, Van Dyke was moved to the Rock Island County Jail. Following his sentencing, he was transferred to the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. His attorneys said he was attacked within hours after arriving there.
The day after the attack, his wife, Tiffany Van Dyke, demanded to know why he was transferred out of Illinois in the first place, calling for authorities to do a better job of protecting his safety.
"I cannot and will not stand by somebody hurting my husband," Tiffany Van Dyke said. "We are done being hurt. I'm standing up for my husband right now because he can't. He cannot stand up for himself and fight anymore."
Weeks later, Van Dyke was moved to the federal prison in Otisville, New York, which has been called one of "America's 10 cushiest prisons" by Forbes.
Van Dyke had been held in federal custody due to the notoriety of the case – even though he was tried in Cook County Criminal Court, which is a state court.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Corrections and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed he was no longer in federal custody, but declined to say where he'd been moved.
Wednesday morning, a Maryland prison employee confirmed Van Dyke had been transferred to the state's intake center in Baltimore. Inmates are typically held at that facility until they are transferred to a state prison.
