Jason Van Dyke moved to N.Y. federal prison

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Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke listens in during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building last year. | Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/pool file photo

Former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, serving a 6-year, 9-month prison sentence for the murder of teenager Laquan McDonald, was transferred to a medium-security New York federal prison noted as preferable for inmates convicted of white-collar crimes.

Van Dyke was moved to the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, N.Y., about 70 miles northwest of New York City, according to federal prison records.

It was not clear when Van Dyke was transferred.

Prison records list his release date as Feb. 8, 2022, which would mean Van Dyke would serve less than half his 81-month sentence under good-time provisions.

The former cop’s family was aware of the move Wednesday evening, said a source close to Van Dyke’s trial attorney, Dan Herbert.

Van Dyke’s new home, FCI Otisville, was ranked by Forbes in 2009 as one of the country’s 10 “cushiest” prisons.

A who’s who of white collar criminals have been housed at the prison, which currently holds 713 inmates at a medium-security facility and 125 more at an adjacent minimum-security camp, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. It was unclear which part of the prison Van Dyke is being housed at.

In December, a federal judge recommended President Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen be sent to Otisville to serve his three-year prison sentence for a list of charges.

Current Otisville inmates include Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, the “Jersey Shore” cast member serving eight months for tax fraud.

Van Dyke had been imprisoned at a federal correctional facility in Connecticut, where he was assaulted by inmates in his cell last month. His wife, Tiffany Van Dyke, said after the beating that she was not aware ahead of time that her husband would be taken to the Connecticut prison.

A jury convicted Van Dyke in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in McDonald’s 2014 slaying.

In January, Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke to 81 months in prison. Gaughan chose to sentence the former officer on only the second-degree murder count, finding it to be the more serious crime, not the aggravated battery counts. Second-degree murder is a potentially probational offense, while each aggravated battery count carries a mandatory six to 30 years in prison.

Gaughan’s decision paved the way for Van Dyke to only serve about half the sentence under good-time provisions — and potentially leave prison after a little more than three years.

Last month, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon filed a petition with the Illinois Supreme Court seeking a new sentencing hearing for Van Dyke.

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