A Cook County judge on May 13 denied a petition by the Chicago Crusader to unseal a document in the case of Dashonn Maggette, a convicted man whose trial last year was called a cover-up by a jury foreman.
Judge Nicholas Kantas agreed with Cook County Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Spizzirri, who argued that unsealing a ballistics test report for the media would jeopardize the State’s case, as they seek to retry Maggette again on gun-related charges that a jury failed to convict him of during a week-long trial in 2023.
It was the only explanation Kantas gave in his decision to keep the ballistics test report sealed. He spent more time explaining his ruling on keeping sealed transcripts that had nothing to do with the Crusader’s request.
With the ballistics test report sealed, a jury last year convicted Maggette of aggravated battery with a firearm and of being an armed habitual criminal.
The Crusader reported that Oscar Morales, the jury foreman, said the trial was a cover-up and jurors were pressured to produce a verdict after a week-long trial. On June 27, Kantas will decide on Maggette’s attorney’s motion for a new trial.
As it stands, Maggette has two gun-related convictions, but the sealed ballistics test report raised questions as to whether Maggette had a gun amid concerns that two police officers planted a weapon on him during a fight in 2017.
Last month, Spizzirri told Kantas that the sealed ballistics test report was never entered into evidence before the trial began.
The court’s decision to keep that document sealed raised new questions after Kantas gave his ruling before Crusader Attorney Charles Snowden at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on the West Side.
On December 4 Snowden filed a petition, requesting the court to unseal a ballistics test report that was conducted by the Illinois State Police months before it was sealed, without a hearing or anyone present. That document has been sealed and off limits to the media and the public for seven years, while Maggette languished in Cook County jail. Now, because of Kantas’ ruling, the ballistics test report may not be unsealed until after Maggette is fully prosecuted and convicted on more gun-related charges.
The ballistics test report helps tell the story of what happened on June 3, 2017, when Maggette and Chicago Police Officers Patrick Forbes and Michael Hudson had a fight in an apartment building in Chatham. The officers claim Maggette had a 9mm gun when he allegedly shot Hudson in the hand. Maggette claims he didn’t have a gun.
Two years ago, while behind bars in Cook County jail, Maggette learned from his public defender that the sealed ballistics test report could not conclude that he had a gun, but it didn’t exclude him from the possibility of possessing one.
He initially was denied the sealed report when he filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Crusader was also denied access to the report when it filed a similar request to obtain the document.
The document was sealed by Judge Lawrence Flood who retired last year, months after the Crusader began reporting on the Maggette case. Flood’s order that sealed the ballistics test report does not provide an explanation or reason for keeping the document away from the public and the media.
And although the order says all parties were present when the order was sealed, there are no transcripts or documents that show that actually happened at a public hearing. In addition, the Judge’s signature is redacted, and there is no date that indicates the day the document was sealed.
During Monday’s hearing, most of Kantas’ ruling involves protected Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) transcripts, which contain initial statements from Officers Forbes and Hudson.
In his ruling, Kantas said, “releasing these discovery documents could affect witnesses’ testimony or taint a potential jury pool. The state has established a compelling interest in that COPA transcripts be sealed.
“Therefore, the court is going to keep in place the prior COPA records under the protective order. I will make a note again that the only sealed documents in this case were the actual transcripts from the COPA investigations of the two officers. So, that sealing of those documents will continue.
“And the only reason those documents ever came into the court’s possession to have the contents sealed was based on the defense filing them in a motion during the pendency of the court, of the trial. Otherwise, those would have never come into the possession of the court to be sealed. So, those were the auspices of which that occurred.”
Kantas then said this to Attorney Snowden, “so with that, your motion to intervene is also denied.”