She doesn’t want the ‘he was a good boy’ narrative dispelled. Laquan spent the majority of his time in State care and foster homes.
Via Chicago Tribune:
The mother of Laquan McDonald intends to fight the release of her son’s confidential juvenile records to attorneys for a white Chicago police officer who fatally shot the black teen.
Following a hearing Thursday in Cook County juvenile court, the mother’s attorney, Robert Robertson, called the request by lawyers for Officer Jason Van Dyke irrelevant because the officer didn’t know McDonald’s identity let alone his troubled past when he opened fire in October 2014.
“It’s an unnecessary character attack prior to trial,” said Robertson, referring to the first-degree murder charges facing Van Dyke. The family received a $5 million out-of-court settlement from the city after McDonald’s fatal shooting.
Robertson said that McDonald’s mother, Tina Hunter, who is raising her daughter in the Chicago area, wants her privacy.
“They really don’t want themselves drawn into the public eye,” he said.
In court Thursday, Steven “Randy” Rueckert, one of Van Dyke’s lawyers, objected to another delay.
Rueckert noted a special prosecutor in Van Dyke’s criminal case who could be appointed as soon as next week will likely want to weigh in on the issue as well, causing further delays.
“I would like to look at these records as soon as I could,” Rueckert said.
Judge Patricia Martin, however, gave Robertson until Aug. 10 to lay out his arguments in writing.
The officer’s legal team has said little about its request for the typically confidential child-protection records, citing a “gag order” they said a judge presiding over the murder case at the Leighton Criminal Court Building had imposed on them.
The voluminous records chronicle the 17-year-old boy’s often turbulent childhood growing up in state care.
Some child advocates cried foul at the request by Van Dyke’s lawyers, saying the defense team was preparing to unfairly make the teen the bad guy.
But other veteran criminal defense lawyers defended the attorneys’ actions as fulfilling their duty to fully prepare for the high-stakes trial.
he state’s Juvenile Court Act governs who may review these court files and requires proper notice be given to all interested parties.
The court-ordered release in November of a video showing Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times caused a firestorm of protests in Chicago and led to calls for major police reforms and to a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the Police Department’s practices.
His defense team has said Van Dyke feared for his safety and that of others when he opened fire at the knife-wielding teen that night. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty.