Richard Vanecko, left, and David Koschman
Richard Vanecko, left, and David Koschman (February 3, 2014)
 
By Steve MIlls and Jason MeisnerTribune reporters
11:47 a.m. CST, February 4, 2014
Former Mayor Richard Daley, his family and members of his administration did not try to influence the investigation into the 2004 death of David Koschman, a special prosecutor concluded in a report released today.

But while there were no specific findings of clout, the 162-page report detailed the bungled handling of what police and prosecutors knew was a heater case from the start, as well as a mayor’s office scrambling to do damage control and manage the media after the Sun-Times began asking questions about the case in 2011.
The report also ripped the questionable finding of the police re-investigation that Daley’s nephew, Richard “R.J.” Vanecko, had acted in self-defense.

The special prosecutor, Dan Webb, interviewed Daley, eight of his relatives and numerous others as part of a grand jury investigation into whether Vanecko received preferential treatment from Chicago police or Cook County prosecutors handling Koschman’s death. Read the report here.
Vanecko, 39, pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, followed by 60 days of home confinement and then 2½ years of probation. The guilty plea stemmed from his April 2004 confrontation with Koschman in the Rush Street nightlife district, a verbal altercation that turned violent when the much larger Vanecko punched Koschman in the face, leaving him with injuries he died from 12 days later.
At issue in the report was how authorities handled the investigation into the incident, both at the time and when the case was reopened in 2011 after an investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times raised questions about whether police had intentionally concealed evidence because of Vanecko's clout.
According to the 162-page report, the evidence showed that then-Mayor Daley learned his nephew had been involved in the incident soon after it happened in 2004. When he was interviewed by the special prosecutor in April 2013, Daley said he learned about the incident "sometime" after it occurred, although he was unable to say exactly when, according to the report.
The former mayor also told investigators he'd "made it clear to his staff and the public that because he was Vanecko's uncle, he had recused himself from any involvement in the Koschman matter," the report stated.
The special prosecutor said he found "limited evidence" of a possible effort by Chicago police commanders to "manufacture a phony self-defense" ruling in Koschman's death when the case was re-investigated in 2011. The report cited evidence that last-minute corrections were made to a report that determined Koschman was the aggressor in the altercation.
"The earlier draft made no mention of self-defense, while the later draft concluded that Vanecko had acted in self-defense," the report stated. The prosecutor also obtained emails in which Deputy Chief Dean Andrews and Sgt. Sam Cirone discussed "corrections" to the self-defense claim, according to the report.
"Under these circumstances, the public could well conclude that the entire claim of self-defense came not from Vanecko, but, rather, was conjured up in the minds of law enforcement," said the conclusion of the report. "A discerning citizen could well surmise that it simply is an argument made of whole cloth. Whether Vanecko may, in fact, have a valid claim of self-defense should properly be for him to raise, not the police."
According to the report, police quickly learned of the involvement of a Daley family member. The lead detective investigating Koschman's death, Ronald Yawger, told the special prosecutor he decided to call in Darren O'Brien, the head of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office Felony Review Unit, to decide whether to press charges because it was such a heater case.
"I just wanted — it's not a good thing to say, but I just wanted to kick the can down the road," Yawger told investigators in an interview in 2012. "I mean, why would we [CPD] make this decision? I wanted out of this case. I wanted to get it over with. I figured just charge the guy and go to preliminary hearing, and it would have been thrown out ... And then we're done with it, it's on somebody else's hands, which is not the right thing to do."
But O'Brien told the special prosecutor's office he declined to press charges at the time for several reasons, including that there was no positive identification of Vanecko as the individual who threw the punch and the possibility that Vanecko acted in self-defense.
When Vanecko came in to take part in a lineup at the Area 3 headquarters in May 2004, there was a "buzz" in the station because it had become known that the mayor's nephew was going to be a lineup participant, the report said.
The report also detailed problems with the police re-investigation of Koschman’s death in 2011, including the disappearance of the original case file that had been removed from a drawer improperly by an “unknown Chicago police officer.” It was found four months after the case was officially closed. 

In February 2011, the lead detective assigned to the re-investigation, James Gilger, sent an email to a superior stating that he was fairly certain the state’s attorney’s office would once again refuse to file any charges in the case.

When he was asked about that email in front of the special grand jury last year, Gilger said he was simply explaining the glaring weaknesses in the case “based on what I had so far.”

“You know, if I couldn’t get Richard Vanecko in there to give me a statement, what do I have?” Gilger testified. “I don’t have any statement from the defendant in this case. I have no identification in a lineup. And the witnesses that are on Vanecko’s side are asking for their lawyer, and they’re not cooperating with me either.”

The special prosecutor’s report questioned how detectives in 2011 were able to conclude that Vanecko had acted in self-defense when the initial investigators were unable to even determine whether there was a punch thrown or who threw it.

In 2011 police concluded that Koschman had been heard yelling “(Expletive) you! I’ll kick your ass!” before aggressively going after Vanecko. But that alleged statement from Koschman was nowhere to be found in detectives’ notes or police reports, according to the report.

The only thing remotely similar came from a May 2004 interview with Vanecko’s friend, Kevin McCarthy, who told police Koschman had been swearing and calling them names. But McCarthy lied in that same interview when he told police he did not know anyone involved in the altercation, according to the report.

The conclusion that Koschman had broken away from the group and charged at Vanecko was also not supported by any of the evidence, according to the report.

The detectives in the 2011 re-investigation erroneously concluded that Vanecko had acted in self-defense without interviewing him and despite the fact that Vanecko towered over Koschman and outweighed him by more than 100 pounds, according to the report.
According to the report, 146 witnesses were interviewed as part of the investigation, while 10 individuals testified under immunity from prosecution after invoking their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The special prosecutor's team reviewed more than 22,000 documents and more than 300,000 pages of records as part of the 17-month investigation.
The report was ordered sealed by Judge Michael Toomin, who oversaw Webb's investigation, because of the potentially explosive revelations that could have impaired Vanecko's right to a fair trial. It was ordered unsealed on Monday and made public Tuesday morning following Vanecko's guilty plea last week.
Toomin took the rare step of appointing Webb in April 2012 after finding "troubling questions" about both the initial and later police investigations, including authorities' ultimate conclusion that Vanecko -- 10 inches taller and 90 pounds heavier than Koschman -- had acted in self-defense even though he was never interviewed.
The special prosecutor indicted Vanecko in December 2012 and continued to investigate the conduct of police and prosecutors until last September when Webb balked at any further charges for statute-of-limitation reasons and evidentiary issues. The probe has cost taxpayers $1.12 million, according to recent public filings.
smmills@tribune.com | Twitter: @smmills1960
jmeisner@tribune.com | Twitter: @jmetr22b