CHICAGO - A new judge was appointed to preside over a case involving a Chicago police officer and two former officers charged with covering up what happened when a white officer fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald.
On Tuesday, Chief Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. said that Cook County Circuit Judge Dominica Stephenson will handle the case that stems from the 2014 shooting of McDonald by Officer Van Dyke. Van Dyke has been charged with murder.
The case was assigned to Judge Diane Cannon after another judge recused herself. But Cannon's acquittal of a police commander on charges that he shoved a gun down a suspect's throat raised concerns about whether she could be fair presiding over the case in which the defendants are police officers and last week Special Prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes asked that Cannon be removed.