Attorneys for a white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald plan to hire a polling company to look at the question of whether the trial should be moved out of Cook County.
Jason Van Dyke's attorney, Dan Herbert, told Judge Vincent Gaughan about the planned survey on Thursday. Herbert said he intends to hire a firm to conduct the survey by mid-March.
Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon told Gaughan that he also plans to commission a poll.
Shortly after Van Dyke's 2015 arrest and the release of the dashcam video showing the officer shoot McDonald 16 times, Herbert told reporters that a change of venue was necessary because of what he contended were inflammatory comments Mayor Rahm Emanuel had made about Van Dyke.
