Prosecutors claim conspiracy, defense blasts evidence as 3 Chicago cops face trial in alleged cover-up of Laquan McDonald shooting
CHICAGO - Within minutes of Laquan McDonald's slaying, witnesses to the shooting were allegedly waved from the scene by police without first being questioned about what they saw.
Chicago police officers who had been at the scene later gathered with detectives at a South Side station, where a narrative emerged that turned out to be sharply at odds with police dashboard camera video of the shooting.
And supervisors up the chain of command signed off on paperwork declaring Officer Jason Van Dyke justified in firing each of 16 bullets into McDonald.
Prosecutors describe it as a reflexive cover-up, proof of a "code of silence" in which every cog of a well-oiled machine kicked into gear to conceal what really happened that night.
But only three relatively low-level officers were criminally charged in the alleged conspiracy. And when they go on trial in a Cook County courtroom later this month, the case against them will rest largely on the infamous shooting video and a few crucial pieces of paper.
Prosecutors allege that former Detective David March, ex-Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney all filed false police reports containing nearly identical claims.
"Filing a false police
