By Jason Meisner
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A federal jury Wednesday sided with two Chicago police officers in the 2011 fatal shooting of a motorist in spite of a dispatch recording that suddenly surfaced in the middle of the trial that appeared to cast doubt on the officers’ version of events.
Attorneys had sought up to $10 million in damages on behalf of the estate of Darius Pinex, 27, who was killed by Officers Raoul Mosqueda and Gildardo Sierra after they pulled his car over on Chicago’s South Side more than four years ago.
The eight-member panel, which deliberated about seven hours over two days, also declined to award any damages to a passenger in the car, Matthew Colyer, who was wounded in the shooting.
While the jury’s verdict was a clear vindication for the officers, the case may be far from over. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, who has ripped city attorneys for not producing the dispatch recording before the trial, has given the go-ahead for a full investigation into how the rules breach occurred and whether any sanctions should be imposed.
Attorneys for both plaintiffs have also said in court they plan to ask for a retrial because of the error.
In the courthouse lobby, Pinex’s mother, Gloria, decried the jury’s decision, shouting through tears that the evidence in the trial had shown the officers to be liars.
“How can you side with somebody who just lied in your face?” she said. “They’ve been lying to me for four whole years, knowing that tape existed and they never gave it to me. But they let them walk, and my son’s gone for nothing? How dare they?”
Pinex was fatally shot early Jan. 7, 2011, after Mosqueda and Sierra pulled him over in the crime-plagued Englewood neighborhood. Both officers have testified that they opened fire after
Pinex refused orders and put the car into reverse, striking a light pole before shifting the car into drive and gunning the vehicle forward. Police said a handgun was found underneath the driver’s seat.
Mosqueda had long held that he stopped Pinex because he thought his Oldsmobile Aurora matched the description he’d heard over his police radio of a car involved in a shooting earlier that night.
But after claiming a copy of the radio dispatch didn’t exist, attorneys for the city suddenly turned over the recording after Mosqueda’s testimony last week. On the tape, the dispatcher did not mention the car being involved in a shooting or that the occupants could be armed and dangerous. In addition, the license plate read over the air did not match Pinex’s vehicle.
“They killed Darius Pinex for no reason,” his estate’s lawyer, Steven Fine, said in closing arguments. “They lied about the dispatch.”
But the city’s attorney implored jurors to put themselves in the officers’ shoes, calling them “people, not robocops.”
Jordan Marsh, an assistant corporation counsel, said the officers truly thought at the time that Pinex’s car was wanted because of the earlier emergency dispatch. He also pointed to testimony by Sierra that he stopped the police SUV in front of Pinex’s car -- instead of behind as he normally would -- because he saw the Oldsmobile make a jerking motion as it slowed, leading him to think the driver might try to speed off.
Marsh also criticized Colyer, saying he has given conflicting accounts of what happened.
The Tribune first disclosed in 2011 that within six months of Pinex’s death, Sierra was involved in two other shootings. In one of those incidents, a squad car dashboard camera showed Sierra fire three shots into Flint Farmer’s back as he was on the ground. Sierra claimed to have mistaken a cellphone held by Farmer for a gun.
The city settled a federal lawsuit brought by Farmer’s estate for $4.1 million.
After the third shooting, Sierra was stripped of his police powers and placed on paid desk duty, where he remains nearly four years later, according to the department. Mosqueda, meanwhile, is still an active patrol officer.
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