Ronald Watts

City of Chicago Defies Court Order to Release COPA Report on Watts

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The City of Chicago as of Wednesday has defied a judge’s order to release an unredacted report on its investigation into disgraced former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, dragging its feet again in the biggest scandal in the history of the Chicago Police Department.

Time and time again, defendants have returned to court to dispute the cases against them that even prosecutors have now agreed were engineered by Sgt. Ronald Watts and his team.

More than 170 people have now seen their convictions tied to Watts overturned, with prosecutors declaring in court during the last mass exoneration in April that "the participation or unknown interference of Watts and other discredited officers in these arrests and convictions raises concerns about the integrity of these cases."

Watts and one of his officers went to prison over the shakedown and framing of residents at the Ida B. Wells housing project for nearly a decade. But the rest of his team was never charged and many remain on the force as the city's investigation into the scandal drags on through its fifth year.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the city’s police oversight agency, issued a report on the scandal more than a year ago. But the city has refused to make that report public. Last month, a Cook County judge ordered the city to release the unredacted report by Aug. 9. That deadline has now come and gone.

“The importance of this report is that it's the first time the city has done anything to hold these officers accountable,” said attorney Joel Flaxman, who represents dozens of the individuals framed by Watts. “And that's why we want them to release the report, so that everybody can know what their investigation has found, and so that they can finally take some action against officers who are still going to work every day, still drawing a paycheck, and haven't faced any kind of accountability.”

“There's no kind of consideration for taking police accountability seriously,” he added. “We have to go to court to get the report and then once we get a court order saying to release it, we don't get it. So the city is not complying with its own claims about caring about police misconduct and then, you know, thumbing their noses at judges who are telling them to release these reports.”

Attorney Matt Topic says the city's defiance is not an anomaly – but part of a pattern. He and Flaxman are part of the legal team that filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to hold the city in contempt for missing the deadline, citing 10 other unrelated cases in recent years in which the city did not comply with court-ordered deadlines.

“This is the city of Chicago acting like the law doesn't apply to it over and over again,” Topic said. “And worse, it isn't just the city. It's the Chicago Police Department. It's the law enforcement agency for the city of Chicago and the law department of the city of Chicago who are not complying with the law and not complying with court orders. What kind of an example does that set for the young people of this city?

How exactly can the city defy a court order?

“That's a great question, and it's a question they ought to answer for the taxpayers who are paying their salaries for them to routinely not comply with what the law says and what courts say,” Topic said.

The Chicago Department of Law did not respond to multiple requests for comment on its failure to produce the unredacted report or the motion filed to hold the city in contempt.

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