New judge appointed in Laquan McDonald cover-up case

A new judge has been assigned to handle the case against three Chicago cops accused of making false statements to cover up for their fellow officer who fatally shot Laquan McDonald.

Cook County Associate Judge Domenica A. Stephenson was randomly selected to oversee the case on Tuesday.

Last week, the special prosecutor assigned to the matter, Patricia Brown Holmes, filed a motion to replace controversial Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, generally considered a prosecution-friendly judge by courtroom observers.

One case in particular that Cannon previously handled immediately came under the spotlight.

In 2015, during a bench trial, Cannon acquitted Chicago Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans on charges that he shoved the barrel of his gun into the mouth of a suspect.

Holmes, reached Tuesday by phone, declined to comment on why she wanted a new judge. She also remained mum when asked what she thought of Stephenson.

Stephenson is set to preside over the case against CPD officers David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney, who were charged last month with conspiracy, misconduct and obstruction of justice for allegedly filing false reports on the 2014 shooting of McDonald by Jason Van Dyke.

Stephenson’s involvement in the case, however, could be brief.

Each of the three defendants will have the opportunity to request a new judge, raising the possibility that the process could play out three more times before the case moves forward.

Stephenson is the third judge to be assigned to the three officers’ case. Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan, who initially got the case, recused herself before it was passed on to Cannon.

The cover-up case appears to be the first “heater case” — courtroom slang for a case that draws lots of media attention — that’s landed before Stephenson.

She was in the news earlier this year when she dismissed the convictions of four men who had served prison time for a 1995 double murder at a Southwest Side car dealership.

And last year her name was in the news when she sentenced a cabdriver to 22 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman during a robbery attempt in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the North Side.

Attorney Thomas Breen, who represents Walsh — Van Dyke’s partner the night of the shooting — said he didn’t know why the prosecution wanted to change judges.

He said Cannon was “a perfectly fair” judge. Breen said he looks forward to proceeding with Stephenson on the bench and neither he nor any other defense attorneys on the case plan to seek another change in judge.

Stephenson had little to say in court on Tuesday other than to confirm the next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 29.