[7][1] A judge presiding over the wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Chicago and CPD Officer Robert Rialmo for the fatal shooting of Quintonio LeGrier in 2015 reversed a jury finding in favor of the teen's family.
LeGrier had a history of behavioral issues and “on more than one occasion sought medical help for his erratic behavior.”[4][15] Robert Rialmo was born and raised on Chicago's North Side.
[15] Prior to the instigating event for his dismissal, he had ten documented use of force incidents and one complaint of neglect of duty, later deemed to be unfounded.
Following this, “Quintonio LeGrier was heard opening the upstairs apartment door and running down the stairs toward the front landing, then opened the door and stepped between Rialmo and Jones brandishing an aluminum baseball bat.”[7] As the officers began to move back, LeGrier “moved towards them with the aluminum baseball bat raised in both hands above his head.
“A criminal prosecution for first or second-degree murder would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Rialmo was not legally justified in using deadly force against LeGrier.
[7][5] Three days after the shooting, a civil action was filed by the LeGrier Family on December 28, 2015, by attorney Bill Foutris for wrongful death.
Defense attorneys Brian Gainer and Joel Brodsky called an expert witness, Emanuel Kapelsohn, who had been hired by the city to review the case.
Contentions that bullet casings found by the sidewalk confirmed Rialmo's distance from LeGrier, nullifying Rialmo's claim that he was in imminent danger, were discounted by the defense and Kapelohn since numerous paramedics and other CPD officers arriving at the scene could have inadvertently kicked them while attempting to administer emergency aid to LeGrier and Jones.
“LeGrier knew his actions toward Officer Rialmo were extreme and outrageous, and that his conduct was atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the complaint states.
It stated that by “forcing Officer Rialmo to end LeGrier’s life and Jones’s innocent life caused him to suffer extreme emotional trauma.”[9][21][22] Judge Rena Marie Van Tine first announced that jurors had sided in favor of Quintonio LeGrier's parents who sued the City of Chicago and Officer Rialmo and awarded them $1.05 million in damages.
But seconds later, Judge Van Tine revealed that the jurors had also signed a specific interrogatory, which is a clear and definitive question to a jury.
The jury unanimously found that Rialmo fired because LeGrier posed grave danger of death or bodily harm to himself or his partner.
However, Judge Rena Marie Van Tine reversed the decision after learning that the jury found Rialmo had feared for his life when responding to the 911 call in the special interrogatory.
Jury foreman, David Fitzsimmons, said that the jurors "didn’t believe Rialmo was a bad person, [but] he made a bad decision at that split moment.”[3] Rialmo's defense attorney, Joel Brodsky, said that the strained relationship LeGrier's parents had with their son factored into the jury's decision not to award any money for pain and suffering since LeGrier was raised by a legal guardian until he turned eighteen-years-old.
[20] The City of Chicago reached a settlement to pay $16 million to the family of Bettie Jones, the innocent bystander who opened the door for CPD Officer Rialmo the morning of December 26, 2015 and was accidentally killed.
[5][23] CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson defended his earlier approval that Rialmo's decision was justified, even though it was in disagreement with Mayor Emanuel's newly appointed Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
Instead, an investigation must address the question of whether the officer, while making split-second decisions in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving circumstances, acted like any other reasonable CPD member on the scene would have done,” Johnson wrote in a letter responding to COPA's findings.
[3] Seven months later, on November 7, 2018, Eddie Johnson eventually filed disciplinary charges with the Chicago Police Board and recommended that Rialmo be fired over Jones’ death.
[24] Vice President Martin Preib of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police criticised Johnsons’ volte-face as: “It was our understanding that the superintendent has determined this shooting was justified.
The Fraternal Order of Police would be sorely disappointed if the leadership of the department has changed that decision.” The charges filed by Johnson include: 1) accusing Rialmo of disobeying an order, 2) inattention to duty, 3) bringing discredit on the department, and 4) unlawful use of a weapon for fatally shooting Jones and inattention to duty, and incompetence, for improperly firing his weapon into a home occupied by a person who would be at risk of injury or death, and 5) incompetence for failing to re-qualify to carry a Taser.
[12] After relentless investigations, Eddie Johnson also embraced the decision by the Chicago Police Board, voting unanimously on October 17, 2019 to dismiss Officer Robert Rialmo over the 2015 shootings.
[23] The shakeup from the prior high-profile murder of Laquan McDonald ended in the firing of Garry McCarthy as superintendent of police, the establishment of the CPATF, and the ousting of Anita Alvarez as State's Attorney.
"[28] Continued press assaults on Emanuel, such as the use of body-cams and the uncovering of hidden emails from the McDonald shooting, only served to fuel the media.
[10] Additionally, the CPATF released a statement saying it “respects the Chicago Police Board's decision to terminate Mr. Robert Rialmo following its objective and thorough investigation into the 2015 officer-involved shooting resulting in the deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones.”[13] On October 17, 2019, the same night as the Rialmo dismissal and after addressing the media, Eddie Johnson was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car by CPD.
[33] A week later, Johnson boycotted President Trump's speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago on October 27, 2019.
[36] On December 2, 2019, Superintendent Johnson was unexpectedly dismissed two weeks before he was ready to retire, ending a tumultuous term as chief of the CPD.