As is usual during pretrial hearings in the case against former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, advocates for police reform packed the pews in Judge Vincent Gaughan’s courtroom last Thursday. Among them was 45-year-old Tyrone Williams, an activist with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Though Van Dyke, who faces first-degree murder charges for shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014, was the center of attention, plenty of other defendants were also waiting for hearings in front of Gaughan. Among them was 44-year-old Norman Hall. By the time Gaughan ended his court call on March 8, he’d ordered both Hall and Williams to be held at the Cook County Jail—without bail—for what witnesses describe as minor outbursts.
Gaughan appeared irritated when Hall’s case was called and he wasn’t in the courtroom, witnesses said. Pearson said Hall looked confused when he was called back in from the hallway, and other witnesses said he continued raising his hand and trying to ask questions even as he got to the judge’s bench. “The third or fourth time he put his hand up to talk, the judge said, ‘Take him into custody,'” Pearson says. “They grabbed him and put him out. We were wondering what on earth was going on, it seemed so bizarre.”
Gaughan ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Hall and set his next hearing date for April 5. Williams’s next court date is set for April 4, but his attorney, James Fennerty (who also represented Bernal), is planning to ask for more reasonable bail terms later this week.
Bernal—who says his experience with Gaughan hasn’t deterred him from showing up for Van Dyke’s hearings—thinks the judge is wielding his power in this way due to the high-profile nature of those hearings. The irony, he notes, is that Laquan McDonald’s supporters are getting thrown in jail for courtroom disruptions while Van Dyke walks in and out of court a relatively free man.
