CHICAGO — Attorneys for the city are asking a Cook County judge to reverse a previous ruling in a last-ditch effort to spare Mayor Lori Lightfoot from testifying about the alleged “code of silence” within the Chicago Police Department.
Last month, Cook County Judge Thomas More Donnelly ordered Lightfoot sit for an hour-long deposition as part of a 2019 whistleblower lawsuit brought against the city by a CPD sergeant. The sergeant, Isaac Lambert, alleges that he was retaliated against and demoted after he refused to classify another CPD officer as the victim in a controversial police shooting on the Far South Side in August 2017.
“They wanted me to have some reports changed to fit the narrative that they wanted,” Lambert previously said. “They wanted this kid charged with aggravated assault and the elements just weren’t there.”
Attorneys for Lambert want to question Lightfoot about the alleged “code of silence” within the CPD. Before she was elected mayor, Lightfoot — then the president of the Chicago Police Board — chaired the Police Accountability Task Force, which was formed after the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video.
The PATF released a report in April 2016 which found, among other things, “The collective bargaining agreements between the police unions and the City have essentially turned the code of silence into official policy.”
In his Sept. 23 order, Donnelly said Lightfoot’s deposition must take place before Oct. 15. Attorneys for the city, however,...
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