CHICAGO — A Chicago police sergeant has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, Cook County, and a handful of government employees, including State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, claiming that he was wrongfully prosecuted for an on-duty shooting. It’s the second wrongful prosecution recently filed by CPD officers acquitted of charges filed by Foxx’s office.
Christopher Liakopoulos was acquitted of all charges one year ago. Now, he’s claiming prosecutors “conspired” with another CPD sergeant to withhold exculpatory evidence from the grand jury that indicted him.
Liakopolous and Officer Ruben Reynoso of CPD’s Major Accident Investigations Unit were driving to a training session in an unmarked car when they came upon three men standing near some closed businesses near 18th and Morgan around 7 a.m. on July 22, 2022.
It was all caught on video:
During an initial bond hearing, prosecutor Alyssa Janicki said Liakopolous stopped the car, backed up to the men, and asked what they were doing. While talking with the group, a juvenile and a man walked toward them. The man had a wine bottle and a phone in one hand and nothing in his other hand, Janicki said. But the juvenile wore a cross-body bag and gripped a gun inside the bag.
Before reaching the officers’ car, the juvenile turned and ran away as the other man waved at the officers with his free hand, Janicki claimed.
Both officers fired shots, striking the unarmed man, who survived. Meanwhile, the juvenile, who was running across the street, turned and fired multiple rounds toward the officers, Janicki claimed. Both cops shot at the juvenile, but no other injuries were reported.
A key allegation in the lawsuit: there was no “scientific evidence” that linked the bullet that struck the injured man to any specific gun.
Liakopoulos claims the juvenile had a gun in his hand, pointed toward the police vehicle after Reynoso displayed his badge. The juvenile approached the car and made threatening remarks, directing the officers’ attention to his weapon, the lawsuit alleges.
Both officers fired “within split seconds” of seeing the gun pointed toward their car, according to the filing.
During her bond court presentation, Janicki claimed that video footage “directly contradicts” the officers’ version of events.
The juvenile was charged with attempted murder of the police officers four days after the shooting. Prosecutors dropped both cases entirely one day later.
Liakopoulos claims a CPD sergeant who investigated the shooting told Janicki and another prosecutor in her office that both officers were “in fear for their lives” when they fired the shots because the masked juvenile was approaching them with a gun pointed “directly at them” while Medina was at his side.
He alleges that the sergeant and both prosecutors “conspired in preparation and presentation” of “misleading” testimony to the grand jury, which returned true bills against the officers. The lawsuit claims that the sergeant withheld “inherently intrinsic exculpatory facts” from the grand jury that could have resulted in no indictment being approved.
Foxx is named as a defendant because, Liakopoulos alleges, she personally approved the filing of charges in the case.
The suit seeks compensation for deprivation of liberty without probable cause, failure to intervene, conspiracy to violate constitutional rights, malicious prosecution, and infliction of emotional distress.
In June, former Chicago police sergeant Michael Vitellaro sued Foxx and other officials for wrongful prosecution, saying they ignored the law and caved to public pressure by criminally charging him with detaining a teenager who was with his son’s recently stolen bike.
Liakopoulos’ lawsuit is available below.
