Mayor Lightfoot’s police oversight pick stalls as aldermen blast report that cited slain Officer Ella French in botched Anjanette Young raid
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice to head the Civilian Office of Police Accountability saw her nomination stall Friday in the face of stiff criticism from aldermen.
Opponents are angry that nominee Andrea Kersten’s office recommended discipline for slain Chicago police Officer Ella French in a report on the wrongful Anjanette Young police raid — a report made public following French’s line-of-duty death.
After Kersten fielded questions for nearly two hours from aldermen Friday, City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Ald. Chris Taliaferro announced he would not proceed with a planned up-or-down vote.
That’s an indication Kersten’s nomination would have failed had the vote taken place, and that Lightfoot’s legislative team told Taliaferro to hold it while they try to build more support or get more aldermen who support her to attend an upcoming meeting.
Kersten opened the hearing by apologizing for the fact French’s name appeared in an August report on the Young raid, but Kersten told aldermen COPA was following its disclosure requirements while she served as the agency’s acting administrator.
French was fatally shot during a traffic stop in August, and a public outcry ensued when COPA released its report in November recommending French face a three-day suspension for her role in the Young raid.
Twenty aldermen signed a letter to Lightfoot that month calling on her not to nominate Kersten to head COPA. Lightfoot criticized Kersten for “tone deafness” in including the recommendation French be disciplined in the report, but nonetheless nominated her to head COPA on a permanent basis.
On Friday, aldermen continued to press Kersten on what she could have done to spare French’s family the additional grief of seeing the report following her line-of-duty death.
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“Clearly there wasn’t due process,” said Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson. “You can’t serve (the report) on (French).”
Kersten insisted COPA was simply carrying out its statutory requirement to publish its recommendations included in a report that was completed several months before French died. Allowing the agency to amend its reports would hurt public trust in police oversight and transparency, she said.
Kersten acknowledged the agency should have done more to make French’s family aware of the report prior to its release to the public.
“In no way does anything in that report in any way impugn the hero that she is, or the legacy that she leaves behind for this city,” Kersten said.
Taliaferro’s decision not to allow the committee to vote on the nomination drew an angry rebuke from Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, who said he opposes Kersten because several years ago she ignored his repeated attempts to discuss a police disciplinary case with her, then reported him to the city Ethics Board.
“This is wrong, Chairman, I’m very disappointed at the whole process here, everybody that’s behind this,” Sposato said. “This is wrong. We should be voting now.”
And Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara also ripped Taliaferro for not allowing the committee to vote, calling the Public Safety chairman “an errand boy for the mayor” in a Friday afternoon video he posted to YouTube.
“And now they’re going to sit on this till they can strong arm some of the public safety members to change their vote, possibly,” Catanzara said of the decision to hold the Kersten nomination in committee. “Disgusting, but that is what’s leading the City Council right now.”
After French died, Young herself praised French for her actions during the bungled raid, during which Young was forced to stand naked and handcuffed while officers searched her apartment based on a faulty tip. A recently released Inspector General’s report faulted the Lightfoot administration’s handling of the raid.
“Officer French was the only officer who showed Ms. Young any dignity or respect on the night of the raid,” Young’s attorneys said in a statement after the officer was shot.
And while the 63-page COPA report recommended the suspension for French, it also cleared her on six of the eight charges she faced, noting she was one of three officers on the scene who “maintained an appropriate regard for Ms. Young’s dignity.”
If the Lightfoot administration lines up enough votes in support of Kersten’s nomination, Taliaferro could still call another meeting of the Public Safety Committee and try to pass it prior to Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Twitter @_johnbyrne
