Free Republic

A Chicago judge appointed a special prosecutor on Friday morning to lead the investigation into the handling of the Jussie Smollett case. Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to the position to investigate the way the case was handled — specifically, why the 16 criminal charges against Smollett were dropped and to potentially reinstate the charges or even add additional charges against Smollett. "Webb gained prominence for his lead role during the Operation Greylord investigations into judicial corruption in Cook County," Fox 32 reported. "He served as special counsel in the Iran-Contra affair and was...

At the woman’s feet, detectives found a curled strand of telephone wire. Draped over her right hand was a different kind of wire: thin and brown. The same brown wire was wrapped around each armrest of a wooden chair next to her. The following day, July 24, a pathologist in the Cook County medical examiner’s office noticed something else that had been obscured by rotting skin: a thin gag tied around the corpse’s mouth. Thanks to some still-visible tattoos, detectives soon identified this unfortunate woman: Tiara Groves, a 20-year-old from Austin. She was last seen walking alone in the wee...

Late on an April night in 2004, Richard Vanecko, the nephew of then Mayor Richard M. Daley, threw a single punch at David Koschman on a sidewalk in Downtown Chicago. Vanecko, Koschman and the small groups accompanying them had been drinking. An argument broke out and the blow from the 6’3″ 230lb Vanecko drove the 5’5″ 125lb Koschman to the pavement. Koschman’s head struck the cement with such force that he died 12 days later in a Chicago hospital. The police investigation didn’t begin until after David Koschman died. “[Police] didn’t conduct lineups to try to identify who threw the...

In March, Coach is Right published a story of official cover-up and falsification of witness testimony involved in the 2004 death of David Koschman at the hands of Richard Vanecko, nephew of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. After 8 years, that story has finally come to a head. In the early morning hours of April 25th 2004, Koschman and three friends bumped into someone from a group which had been visiting the bars in downtown Chicago. A moment later, a member of that party struck Koschman, driving his head into the street causing brain damage from which the young man...

The nephew of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was indicted Monday for involuntary manslaughter in the 2004 death of a 21-year-old man outside a Chicago bar, and a grand jury is continuing its inquiry into whether authorities covered up or impeded an investigation of a relative of the city's most powerful man. Richard Vanecko, 38, was indicted by a Cook County special grand jury in the death of David Koschman of Mount Prospect. Koschman died days after he fell and struck his head during a fight with Vanecko outside a bar in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.