Judge to release some court records in Laquan McDonald case

Some of the more than 100 motions, briefs and orders filed in the murder case against Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke should become public in a matter of weeks after a group of news organizations— including The Chicago Sun-Times— requested access to court filings that have been under seal.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan on Wednesday ordered Van Dyke’s defense team and Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon to prepare objections to the release of any of their filings in the case, and has asked clerk’s staff to set up a system to allow members of the public to view documents he deems safe to release.

The move by the judge comes more than a month after the media groups and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press filed a motion to intervene in the case, now more than two years removed from when Van Dyke was charged with the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Under a “decorum order” put in place by the judge, Van Dyke’s attorneys and prosecutors are prevented from discussing the case publicly.

RELATED: Judge pushes for Van Dyke trial to start this summer

Filings in the case are filed and kept in Gaughan’s courtroom, rather than in the central clerk’s office, preventing members of the public or the press from viewing them, and the judge has provided only a handful of documents to the public.

Apparently in response to an observation by lawyers for the media groups that not even the indictment charging Van Dyke is on file where the public can see it, Gaughan on Wednesday had an aide distribute copies of the charges to the press.

Hearings in the Van Dyke case also almost always begin with Gaughan bringing the attorneys in the case into his chambers for an “informal case management conference,” off-the-record sessions which can last an hour or more. When attorneys return to the courtroom, Gaughan appoints one of the attorneys who was in chambers to read what amounts to brief meeting minutes into the record.

Such “decorum orders”— Gaughan chastises attorneys who refer to them as “gag orders”— are somewhat exceptional at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, but Gaughan has made them a hallmark of his handling of high-profile cases.

Lawyers for the media companies asked that the judge unseal all records in the case – a request the judge did not seem inclined to accept, noting that several filings include references to or transcripts of grand jury testimony.

With some of the filings more than two years old already, it’s not clear how much news will be revealed. Van Dyke’s lawyers and McMahon’s team have previously stated their opposition to releasing around 70 of the approximately 110 filings in the case to date.

Media attention also figured into another topic at hand in the case, which consumed the bulk of Wednesday’s three-hour hearing. Van Dyke’s defense is seeking to move the trial out of Cook County, and has hired a trial consultant to survey potential jurors about the case.

Gaughan has pushed to have the trial take place this summer— though no trial date has been set yet— and ordered Van Dyke’s consultant to appear in court to explain apparent delays in making his findings. Bryan Edelman testified that his San Francisco-based firm was hired in January, and that he typically takes six months to complete his report, after performing a detailed analysis of media coverage of the case, surveying the attitudes of residents in Cook County and surrounding areas.

“Could you get it done by the end of May?” Gaughan said, smiling.

“I promise I will do the best I can,” Edelman said.

Edelman said he seldom recommends moving a trial to a new jurisdiction, noting that even cases that have attracted intense media scrutiny often are virtually unnoticed by potential jurors.

Edelman also noted detail that could impact the attitudes of prospective jurors: three CPD officers who were charged with covering up for Van Dyke are due to go to trial July 10, a case that could inundate the public with news coverage rehashing details of the McDonald shooting.