A Chicago Police officer who was found not guilty of wrongly shooting a man while exchanging gunfire with the man's associate who threatened the officer and his partner with a gun has become the latest Chicago cop to sue Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx for wrongly charging him, allegedly withholding evidence, and taking him to trial, when she should have known he had done nothing wrong.
Chicago Police Sergeant Christopher Liakopoulos filed his lawsuit in Chicago federal court. The lawsuit names Foxx as a defendant, along with two of Foxx's deputy prosecutors, assistant state's attorneys Alyssa Janicki and Lynn McCarthy. The lawsuit also names Chicago Police Sergeant Emmet Welch as a defendant.
The lawsuit accuses all of the defendants of participating in an effort to railroad him with criminal charges as the result of a police-involved shooting in the 1000 block of West 18th Street on Chicago's lower West Side.
According to the lawsuit, Liakopoulos and a partner officer were on their way to a training session when they allegedly noticed suspicious activity in front of a shoe repair shop on July 22, 2022.
When they stopped to investigate, two people - one, a juvenile, identified only as A.A., and the other as Miguel Medina - reportedly approached their vehicle. According to the complaint, the officers immediately noted that A.A. was carrying a gun and pointed it at the officers.
According to the complaint, the officers pulled their weapons in response and exchanged gunfire with A.A. During the gunfight, A.A. reportedly fled the scene, but Medina was shot in his back and leg, but survived his wounds.
According to the complaint, A.A. was later arrested and charged with attempted murder of the officers.
Foxx, however, dropped those charges the next day.
Instead, her office pursued criminal charges against Liakopoulos, asserting he was unjustified in engaging A.A., resulting in Medina's injuries.
Foxx's prosecutors charged Liakopoulos with aggravated battery, aggravated discharge of a firearm and official misconduct on Sept. 15, 2022.
According to the complaint, the charges were filed despite an investigation that reportedly revealed multiple witnesses backing Liakopoulos' recounting of events, and indicating Liakopoulos and his partner were justified to have fired their weapons.
Further, according to the lawsuit, while the case was before a grand jury, Foxx's office allegedly withheld video evidence from the grand jury that would have made it more difficult for prosecutors to secure the criminal charges against Liakopoulos.
At trial, Liakopoulos was found not guilty by a Cook County judge in September 2023. However, Liakopoulos has been relieved of his duties as a Chicago Police officer.
Liakopoulos filed suit in late August 2024, accusing the defendants of willfully and maliciously conspiring to wrongly prosecute him in connection with the shooting, when they allegedly knew he should not have been charged at all.
Liakopoulos is demanding unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the individual defendants, as well as against the city of Chicago and Cook County as their employers.
The lawsuit is the second such claim accusing Foxx of wrongly attempting to criminally convict a Chicago Police officer for taking actions against criminal activity.
Earlier this year, former Chicago Police officer Michael Vitellaro sued Foxx and McCarthy, as well as a former Park Ridge Police chief, for wrongly prosecuting him for detaining a youth who had stolen a bicycle belonging to his son, while waiting on Park Ridge police to arrive.
Reportedly, Vitellaro was charged with felony aggravated criminal battery and official misconduct after a community outcry from primarily black residents who asserted Vitellaro had abused his position in detaining the youth.
A Cook County jury found Vitellaro not guilty in 2023, and he then lodged his lawsuit in federal court.
Foxx has asked a federal judge to dismiss that lawsuit, asserting a legal doctrine known as prosecutorial immunity means she can't be sued over official actions she took while handling criminal complaints.
Foxx, who has been accused for years of anti-cop bias and of seeking to protect the rights of accused criminals over public safety, is not seeking reelection. She will be replaced by the winner of the November contest between Democratic nominee Eileen O'Neill Burke and Republican Robert "Bob" Fioretti.
Both Vitellero and Liakopoulos are represented in their lawsuits by attorney Tim Biasiello and the firm of DiFranco & Associates, of Park Ridge.