Koschman Special Prosecutor: No New Charges Will Be Filed
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 19, 2013 5:40PM
A grand jury investigation into the 2004 death of David Koschman has ended with special prosecutor Dan Webb announcing no new indictments will be filed against police and prosecutors who handled the case.
In a court filing Webb, a former U.S. prosecutor, wrote the statute of limitations had expired to charge Chicago Police and Cook County State’s Attorney’s office personnel with any crimes they may have committed in the original 2004 investigation into Koschman’s death, and there was insufficient evidence to bring charges to CPD personnel when the case was re-opened in 2011. A media release from Webb’s law firm, Winston & Strawn, states Webb and the grand jury he empanelled interviewed 146 individual witnesses and reviewed over 22,000 documents (totaling more than 300,000 pages), including telephone records, e-mails, police reports, policy and procedure manuals, internal memoranda, attendance records, medical records, access logs, historical cell site data, recovered computer data, video surveillance, billing records, and receipts.
Webb was appointed special prosecutor in the Koschman investigation by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Toomin in April 2012 and charged with determining how the Police Department and State’s Attorney’s office managed to identify Daley family relative Richard “RJ” Vanecko as Koschman’s killer yet didn’t charge Vanecko in the death.
Vanecko was indicted on manslaughter charges last December. A McHenry County judge was appointed to oversee his trial by the Illinois State Supreme Court, which Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans said would “restore public confidence in the administration of justice.”
Webb issued a 162-page report entitled The Death of David Koschman:
Report of the Special Prosecutor Dan K. Webb, that has been temporarily placed under seal pursuant to court order. Attorneys for Koschman's family will address the ending of the investigation 3 p.m. this afternoon at Northwestern University School of Law downtown.