Chicago Inspector General Investigating Mayor Lightfoot's Office, City Officials For 'Possible Misconduct' In Anjanette Young Raid
By Samah Assad, Michele Youngerman
(CBS) -- Chicago's Inspector General is now investigating "possible misconduct" by city officials, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office, for how they handled the botched raid on the home of Anjanette Young and the aftermath.
In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson said the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is "conducting a disciplinary investigation" into "all involved City actors". It further says, "OIG's investigation may include inquiry into actions conducted by, through or on behalf of [the Chicago Police Department, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)], the Law Department, and the Mayor's Office."
"OIG's work may further include programmatic and policy issues and recommendations of broader application that may be identified in the course of the investigation," the statement said.
The OIG's investigation comes a month after CBS 2 first aired the disturbing body camera video showing officers entering Young's home and handcuffing her while she was naked. The video of the raid itself sparked national outcry. It revealed how officers treated Young as she begged for answers and told them more than 43 times that they were in the wrong place.
A separate investigation was launched by COPA in 2019 into the officers who wrongly raided Young's home in February that same year. The officers failed to do basic police investigative work to verify a tip from a confidential informant. CBS 2 Investigators found the suspect lived next door and was wearing a police electronic monitoring device.
The city's attempts to stop CBS 2 from airing the story and keep the police body camera video hidden left Mayor Lightfoot's office in a state of damage control for weeks. Hours before CBS 2's story aired, the Chicago Law Department filed a motion in federal court in an effort to kill the story. CBS 2 aired the video anyway. As the story was airing, a federal judge denied the city's request.
Previously, the city denied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the video from CBS 2 and Young, respectively.
In the aftermath, Lightfoot initially claimed in a news conference she wasn't aware of the video and the city did not deny Young's FOIA. CBS 2 challenged Lightfoot on that issue, having seen Young's request.
As a result, Lightfoot publicly apologized to Young. The city's top attorney, Mark Flessner, and two other law department employees resigned.
CBS 2's reporting – and the national condemnation of the raid as a result – also pressured Lightfoot to release hundreds of emails between her staff from the last two years. The emails revealed what CBS 2 previously reported – Lightfoot was aware of the raid and disturbing video. But instead of addressing the raid itself, the emails from 2019 show how her staff and police attempted to block the release of the video and focused on minimizing the negative press.
In 2019, as result of CBS 2's years-long investigation into wrong raids by CPD, the OIG launched an audit of the police department's policies and practices of search warrant executions. Its latest investigation into the key players involved in the handling of Young's case is now part of that.
"…OIG is committed to ensuring that, as a whole, the various efforts underway provide the robust, thoroughgoing accountability called for by this incident and its aftermath with as much transparency as the law allows," the OIG's statement said.
Lightfoot has previously said she welcomes an OIG investigation and reiterated that statement Wednesday.
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