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lice Officers and the prosecutor assigned to the case. He informed the prosecutor that he played a very small role in the incident and did not remember the facts very well due to the time passage and his limited role. The prosecu- tor prepped all the officers together for less than 10 min- utes. The Chicago officers told the prosecutor about the facts leading up to the arrest of the individual. My client listened to the explanations and remembered the inci- dent occurring in the same way it was relayed to the pros- ecutor. It turned out there was a video in this case, which was unbeknownst to the officers and the prosecutor, who admitted to simply glancing at the file before it began. She was not aware that the defense attorney subpoenaed video from one of the suburban squads at the preliminary hearing and later at the trial stage. She acknowledged that she did not notice a subpoena for squad car video, which was in her file at the time when she prepped the officers.
The Chicago Police Officers were called first to testify. As they testified, it became clear to everyone in the room, with the exception of the prosecutor, that there was a vid- eo of the incident. At the conclusion of the Chicago Police Officers’ testimony, and before my client had taken the stand, the defense attorney asked the judge for a 10-min- ute break so that he “could get some video equipment from the State’s Attorney’s Office.” The prosecutor testified that she did not know anything about a video tape. According- ly, she never informed my client that there was a video in this case. As my client was testifying, the defense attorney asked him numerous questions about video from a squad car from his Department. The judge recognized that the
video was about to be produced and offered the State’s Attorney an opportunity to break for a moment and talk to her witness about this video. The court asked the pros- ecutor, “Do you want to break for a few minutes? Do you need any time? I would give you a break if you need to do anything about this investigation.” The State responded, “No, we don’t need a break, Your Honor. Thank you.”
My client was led to slaughter as he proceeded to tes- tify to facts that were contradicted by the video that was subsequently produced. My client was never given an opportunity to correct his testimony after the video was produced. The State simply rested.
Despite all of the many mistakes made by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office on that day, the prosecu- tors refused to accept responsibility, and instead placed all the blame on the individual police officers. My client was charged with two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, all felonies.
Thankfully, the court concluded that my client’s mis- taken testimony was not done with knowledge and was not material to the issue; however, he was fired from his job and was forced to live with the prospect of a felony conviction and possible jail time for more than a year as he awaited trial. He learned a valuable lesson at a very high cost. The next time you take the witness stand and raise your right hand, take a moment to look behind you. Notice that you are alone on the stand and solely respon- sible for what is about to come out of your mouth. d
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