Prominent Chicago area faith leaders gathered Friday to address the released video footage of the botched police raid that left a woman naked and handcuffed.
Pastors and faith leaders gathered at the Chicago Police Department Headquarters Friday afternoon to describe the incident caught on body camera video as "inhumane" and "unethical."
"She, of course, has been traumatized and the first order of business is to give her all the support and the help that she needs," said Marshall Elijah Hatch, pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.
The footage showed Chicago police entering the wrong home belonging to Anjanette Young during a botched raid and handcuffing her naked.
City faith leaders called on officials to answer how many tapes exist, when the mayor knew of the incident and how many individuals knew of the incident.
"We need the same Lori Lightfoot that ran for office. She rode the horse of police reform to city hall," Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, said.
The Chicago mayor's office released a statement Friday evening calling for officers involved in the botched Chicago police raid caught on body worn cameras be identified and held accountable.
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After controversy pursued over the past week over what information Mayor Lori Lightfoot knew about the CPD raid, her office said the city's law department provided Young's attorneys with the video on Feb. 21, 2020 connected to the incident.
"At that time, the Law Department clearly failed to search all potential locations where corresponding [body worn camera] video could be located. 14 videos were turned over to Ms. Young’s counsel," the statement said.
The mayor's office said on March 9, 2020 Young's counsel dismissed the lawsuit against the city, ending further searches for video by the law department in response to the order.
After news of the incident came to light, the Chicago mayor ordered that all body worn camera video footage be released to Young, the press and the public, according to her office.
"While this failure to produce the additional six videotapes was inadvertent and not intentional, nonetheless, it was completely unacceptable. The Mayor has directed that all individuals responsible for this discovery failure be identified so they can be held accountable."
Lightfoot had her counsel move to withdraw sanctions against an attorney who represents the woman at the center of a botched Chicago police raid and the controversy that followed it.
“Today, at my direction, the Corporation Counsel filed a supplemental motion with the court to make a few things clear," Lightfoot said in a statement.
While Lightfoot said no sanctions were sought against the woman herself, Lightfoot said she asked her counsel to "formally move to withdraw sanctions against Attorney [Keenan] Saulter."
"While we remain concerned that a violation of a court order may have occurred, I believe that we should give Attorney Saulter the benefit of the doubt that he did not appreciate that the court's confidentiality order continued in full force and effect, even after the voluntary dismissal of the case in March 2020," Lightfoot said. "We urge the court to take no action against Attorney Saulter. I again want to reiterate and affirm my commitment to righting the wrongs in this case and moving forward with full transparency and accountability.”
Sanctions were sought against Saulter after video obtained by a federal lawsuit earlier this year was released, despite a confidentiality agreement. Saulter said the federal suit was dropped as he worked to pursue the case in state court.
The case has been at the center of controversy in Chicago as both Lightfoot and the city's top cop apologized for the handling of both the search warrant and the legal battle that followed.
Lightfoot on Thursday walked back her claim that she was not previously aware of the botched raid in which officers went to the wrong home and handcuffed a naked woman in an incident caught on body camera footage that her administration fought to keep from being released in court.
Lightfoot acknowledged Thursday that she was in fact informed of the raid, which took place prior to her taking office, in November 2019, but said she did not remember being told about it. That was a marked shift from when she said on Wednesday that she was made aware of the both the incident and the video only the day before.
"What I now know, having looked at some emails, is my team knew that this was an issue of great concern for me - issue meaning about the search warrants," Lightfoot said.
"So this was lifted up to me as yet another example," she added. "Again, I don't have any specific recollection of it. It was in November when I was probably focused on budget issues and getting our budget passed through City Council, but it was flagged for me."
Lightfoot maintained that she had not seen video of the incident until Tuesday.
But that wasn't the only thing Lightfoot chose to correct about her remarks surrounding the incident.
The mayor also said she "misspoke" Wednesday when she said that a Freedom of Information Act Request filed by the woman at the center of the raid was not denied.
"Miss Young did file a FOIA request," Lightfoot said. "That request was filed with the Chicago Police Department in November of 2019. That request was denied and I've asked for a top to bottom understanding of why that was denied."
