Issues & Case Updates

We at People’s Law Office recognize, after years of cover up, the importance of the recent announcement that Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, nephew of former Mayor and former Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley has been indicted. It is significant that for years, a politically connected individual was not previously indicted for crimes in the tragic death of a

Nothing but a Northern Lynching: The Assassination of Fred Hampton G. Flint Taylor, People’s Law Office, December 4, 2012 At 4:30 in the morning of December 4, 1969, 14 heavily armed Chicago police officers, acting at the direction of Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan, raided a tiny apartment on the west side of Chicago where local Black Panther

COMMENTARY BY G. FLINT TAYLOR First appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Nov 28, 2012. As of Wednesday, it appears certain the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois have decided not to bring perjury and obstruction of justice charges against former Chicago Police Sgt. John Byrne, who loyally served as convicted Chicago Police Cmdr.

Three of the “NATO 5” Appear in Court, New Trial Date Set November 19, 2012 Brian Jacob Church, Jared Chase and Brent Betterly, three of the “NATO 5” appeared today in Cook County Criminal Court. The three activists were arrested in a midnight raid in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood in the days leading up to the NATO Summit. They were subsequently

  Thursday, November 15, 2012. I John H. White~Sun-Times  People’s Law Office attorneys, together with the MacArthur Justice Center, today filed a damages lawsuit on behalf of Terrill Swift, one of the Englewood Four, alleging that he was framed, at the age of 17, by several notorious Chicago police detectives, including Kenneth Boudreau and James Cassidy, for crimes he did not

By Flint Taylor, Civil Rights Attorney at People’s Law Office Also Appears on Huffington Post  When an all-white federal jury found that Chicago police officer Anthony Abbate was acting pursuant to a widespread and persistent police code of silence when he brutally beat a diminutive female bartender, it sent a message to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, his police superintendent, and the city’s corporation counsel that fundamental

Vodak Class Action Lawsuit Great News! Yesterday, November 7, 2012, the Judge presiding over the Vodak class action civil rights lawsuit granted the motion for final approval of the class action settlement and approved an award for our attorneys’ fees and costs. You can find the motion for final approval of the class claims here. What’s Next? On January 7, 2013,

This is the final opportunity to submit a claim form in Vodak v. City of Chicago, the class action lawsuit resulting from the actions of the Chicago Police at the anti-war protest on March 20, 2003. The deadline to submit your claim form is this Monday, October 22. This is the date when the forms must be received, so at

End of Term United States Supreme Court Review By G. Flint Taylor and Ben H. Elson (This article was first published in the September/October 2012 Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report, Vol. 10, No. 11.) In the concluding months of its 2011-2012 term, the Supreme Court decided a number of cases that are pertinent to police misconduct litigators. These

People’s Law Office Lawyers File Dixmoor Five Lawsuit on Behalf of Jonathan Barr Five innocent men, known as the Dixmoor Five, today filed civil rights complaints in Federal District Court alleging that their Constitutional rights to a fair trial were violated when they were wrongfully convicted for the brutal 1991murder and rape of a young girl. The complaint alleges that