Prosecutor fired over claimed lies under oath in shooting case
Updated: Soon after a Chicago police officer was shot in 2012 on the city’s South Side, a suspect was arrested in the basement of the home he shared with his mother. Officer Del Pearson was severely injured in the shooting but survived.
A revolver recovered in the basement was linked to the crime, and the case against Paris Sadler looked strong, the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.) reported last month. But then a judge hearing a motion to quash Sadler’s arrest and suppress evidence questioned the accuracy of a witness statement.
Contradicting a claim by Sadler’s mother that she had edited her statement, which included the detail that she had requested a lawyer, Assistant Cook County state’s attorney Joseph Lattanzio denied that any corrections had been made. Colleagues at the prosecutor’s office also said that a number of his statements do not include corrections.
However, Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson said he was convinced by Talaina Cureton’s testimony that another edited statement existed, since this is common practice. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen any statement taken by an assistant state’s attorney … where it is perfect with no edits or corrections,” the judge said during the hearing, citing nearly 20 years of experience as an attorney and judge.
Then, on the last Friday of August, defense lawyers dropped a bombshell. Cureton had secretly taken an iPad recording of her interview with prosecutors the day after the shooting, another Chicago Tribune (reg. req.) article reported.
Now the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.) is reporting that Lattanzio has been fired from his job over allegations that he lied under oath about the investigation of the case.
At a press conference later in the day, state’s attorney Anita Alvarez confirmed the termination and said her office has been increasing its efforts to audio and videotape statements made by suspects and witnesses in violent felony cases.
An attorney for Lottanzio said he had not lied under oath, but simply failed to remember events of years earlier. The lawyer also blasted the defense in the Sadler case, saying that it had made a “sideshow” out of Lattanzio’s relatively minimal role in an effort to distract attention from “overwhelming evidence” against their client.
A spokeswoman for the state’s attorney says the office will review all prosecutions in which Lattanzio has been involved.
Updated on Sept. 15 to include information from subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
