OIG report said Van Dyke lied, disobeyed orders after murder

Crusader Staff Report

Convicted murderer and former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke submitted numerous false reports, lied and disobeyed orders after he killed 17-year old Laquan McDonald in 2014.

Those claims are in newly released records from the Office of the Inspector General.

The city on Wednesday released pages and pages of reports and exhibits involving 16 officers who the OIG recommended termination or discipline for their roles in protecting Van Dyke after he shot McDonald 16 times at 41st and Pulaski. Three officers in January were acquitted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in January. In July, the Chicago Police Board unanimously voted to fire four police officers, saying they lied to cover up the murder. Last month, all four officers filed a wrongful termination suit.

Van Dyke was convicted of second degree murder in 2018. He is currently serving just over six years behind bars for the crime. If he shows good behavior, Van Dyke would serve half of his sentence.

According to the new OIG’s reports, “Van Dyke’s false reports, false statements and material commissions all served to exaggerate the threat McDonald posed. Van Dyke failed to cooperate with the OIG’s investigation, after being properly called upon to do so and in direct violation of a superior’s order, by refusing to answer OIG’s questions in his interview.”

The report also said “Van Dyke’s statements can be seen as a deliberate attempt to establish the false narrative that a back-pedaling Van Dyke shot an onrushing McDonald in response to McDonald’s potentially deadly knife attack.”

The new report also says retired and disgraced detective Anthony Wojcik destroyed and then “personally recreated” investigators’ notes without telling detectives.

“Wojcik improperly disposed of three original general progress reports containing CPD detectives’ handwritten notes of the statements three civilian witnesses made the night of the shooting,” according to Wojcik’s OIG report.

“Prior to disposing of the original reports, which disposal he failed to document, Wojcik personally recreated the reports.

“However, Wojcik did not ask the detectives who had taken the statements to review the recreated reports for accuracy and did not inform them of his recreation of their original reports until several months after CPD officially closed its investigation of the shooting.”

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