Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has a new chief of detectives — a veteran cop under investigation for his role in creating a fictitious witness statement that helped prevent former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew from being charged with killing David Koschman.
Constantine G. “Dean” Andrews was deputy chief of detectives in 2011 when he was placed in charge of reinvestigating the Koschman case and closed it without charges, concluding that Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko had punched Koschman in self-defense.
Cook County Judge Michael P. Toomin later ruled that police and prosecutors “conjured up” the self-defense conclusion. Toomin appointed a special prosecutor, Dan K. Webb, who led an investigation that resulted in Vanecko pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in January 2014.
Andrews’ promotion, announced Monday, angered an attorney for Koschman’s mother, Nanci Koschman, who fought for months to have her son’s 2004 death examined by a special prosecutor after the Chicago Sun-Times raised numerous questions about how authorities handled the case.
