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Ex-Chicago Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans Sues City, IPRA And WBEZ

By  Mark Konkol and Kelly Bauer | July 29, 2016 8:37am | Updated on July 29, 2016 9:41am

 Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans and Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a 2013 media event at the Grand Crossing District station.
Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans and Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a 2013 media event at the Grand Crossing District station.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CHICAGO — Glenn Evans, a former Chicago Police commander who was accused and acquitted of shoving his gun down a suspect’s throat, is fighting back.

Evans filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging he was the victim of a civil conspiracy that led to his wrongful prosecution on criminal charges, according to court papers.

Evans’ lawsuit claims, among other things, that members of the city’s Independent Police Review Board conspired on a common goal of “ousting him from the Chicago police department” and “saving face” for the beleaguered agency often accused of bungling police misconduct investigations in the favor of accused officers.

“IPRA proclaims that it conducts investigations with integrity, transparency, independence and timeliness. In one fell swoop, IPRA violated all of these tenets when it investigated Commander Glenn Evans for allegedly shoving a gun down the throat of Rickey Williams, which resulted in the Commander being charged with multiple felonies,” Evans attorney Victor Henderson said in a statement.

The lawsuit, which names the City of Chicago and radio station WBEZ as defendants, alleges that an IPRA employee with a grudge against Evans was out for revenge.

Evans’ lawsuit claims IPRA investigator Matrice Campbell conspired with fellow investigator Vincent Jones to bring bogus criminal charges against the former police commander.

The lawsuit alleges Campbell, a former police officer who was disciplined by Evans, leaked confidential information about a police misconduct complaint against the former police commander to WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell.

Mitchell allegedly used that confidential information — including confirmation of a “DNA match” found on the gun Evans allegedly shoved in the mouth of a suspect — to write a series of what Evans characterizes as “misleading exposes,” according to court papers.

The lawsuit accuses Mitchell of “acting with malice” and, along with WBEZ, “willfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, with calculations to harm Evans’ character and reputation and solely to advance Mitchell’s own career, knowing that they did not have the complete file when they published certain information about the investigation.”

When other news outlets furiously followed up on Mitchell’s reporting, the media attention put extreme pressure on Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and was “forced” to bring felony charges against Evans in an election year, the lawsuit alleges. Mitchell is not named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the state’s attorney did not have probable cause to believe Evans shoved a gun down Williams' throat due to IPRA’s “botched” and “incomplete” investigation.

In addition to Jones and Campbell, ten other IPRA employees — including chief administrator Sharon Fairley, former chief administrator Scott Ando, deputy chief administrator William Carlos Weeden, investigations coordinators Andrea Stoutenborough, supervising investigator Sherry Daun and investigators James Lukas, Anthony Finnell, Maria Olvera, Linda Franko and Sharon Hayes — were named in the lawsuit.

Evans claims IPRA employees engaged in the “malicious prosecution” of Evans that lead to criminal charges. Their actions were related to “past adversarial contact with Evans and/or to further their own careers and save face for IPRA,” the lawsuit alleges.

"IPRA has once again failed the citizens of the City of Chicago by not playing it down the middle with its investigations," Henderson said in the statement. "Shooting victims and police alike deserve a fair and honest investigation. Anything less only serves to undermine Chicago in our own eyes and in the eyes of the world. Glenn Evans has filed suit against IPRA and others for their wrongdoing as exposed during his criminal trial in December 2015."

A Cook County Judge on Dec. 14, 2015, found Evans not guilty on all charges.

Representatives from the city, IPRA and WBEZ could not be reached for comment immediately.

Evans claims that attempts to persecute him did not stop after he was acquitted.  

The lawsuit states, “Soon after he returned to work, Evans received up to 30 phone calls from his superiors pressuring him to retire.”

Evans claims he was told that Fairley, the IPRA chief administrator, would push to bring federal charges against him if he did not voluntarily retire. Top police brass also told Evans he would be fired if he didn’t retire.

They even personally delivered retirement documents to the former police commander, according to court papers.

Evans has refused to retire. He is currently is assigned, “against his wishes,” to the police department’s “medical section.”

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