|
 Glenn Evans, 53, was relieved of his duties last year pending the
outcome of his case. He was tried in Chicago last week for
aggravated battery and official misconduct in the Jan. 30, 2013
arrest of Rickey Williams, 25.
Evans, who had been praised for his work in high-crime areas of the
third-largest city, also was accused of holding a Taser to Williams'
groin during his arrest for reckless conduct. Both men are black.
Evans' three-day bench trial came as Chicago police were under local
and federal scrutiny for use of force, following the release last
month of a 2014 video showing a white police officer shooting a
black teen 16 times. The officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with
murder in the shooting of Laquan McDonald.
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel has apologized for the McDonald shooting amid
daily protests calling for his resignation, and vowed to fix
problems in police culture. The U.S. Department of Justice last week
launched a civil rights investigation into the city's police
department.
The amount of force that can be used by police officers has become a
focus of national debate due to a series of high-profile police
killings of black men by mainly white officers in U.S. cities.
Evans has been the subject of several police misconduct lawsuits,
according to local media reports.
Prosecutors told Cook County Criminal Court Judge Diane Cannon that
the commander crossed the line into criminal conduct during the
arrest, and that Williams' DNA was on Evans' gun.
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Defense attorney Laura Morask questioned why a saliva test was not
done on the gun, and said the presence of DNA did not prove the gun
was in Williams' mouth.
Other officers present on the night of the arrest testified that
Evans believed that Williams had a gun when he chased him into an
abandoned building on the city's South Side.
If found guilty, Evans could face up to five years in prison.
(Reporting by Nikitta Foston and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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