By TIM NOVAK
Staff Reporter

It’s been more than five years since former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman.

Now, the last cop still facing disciplinary action in the high-profile case is arguing he shouldn’t be punished — and that Daley’s nephew never should have been charged by a special prosecutor.

Sgt. Sam Cirone and four others involved in the investigation have testified to the Chicago Police Board, which will decide Cirone’s fate.

And all agreed: Daley’s nephew shouldn’t have been charged.

That’s even though Vanecko, who was only brought to justice after the appointment of special prosecutor Dan K. Webb, admitted to punching the 21-year-old Mount Prospect man in the face during a drunken argument near Rush Street on April 25, 2004.

It’s despite Vanecko telling Nanci Koschman, the dead man’s mother, in court, “I can only say, Mrs. Koschman: I’m sorry, and I apologize.”

And despite the fact that Vanecko served two months in jail.

Without mentioning any of the above, Cirone’s lawyer James P. McKay Jr. told hearing officer Thomas Johnson this month that the only reason Daley’s nephew was charged was because of public pressure resulting from a Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

Regarding the five Chicago Police Department rules that Cirone is accused of violating, which involve his supervision of detectives on the case, McKay said, “The charges are nothing more than the fault of somebody at City Hall who’s afraid to tell the media, ‘Screw you.’ ”

And McKay went further, blaming Koschman, who never struck anyone, for his own death.

“I say this with all due respect to Mrs. Koschman, the reason her son isn’t here today is because he started something he couldn’t finish,” McKay said.

Sgt. Sam Cirone’s lawyer James P. McKay Jr.: “I say this with all due respect to Mrs. Koschman, the reason her son isn’t here today is because he started something he couldn’t finish.” | Sun-Times files

Locke Bowman — one of two lawyers who helped Nanci Koschman win the appointment of the special prosecutor to reopen the case — said the statements didn’t surprise him.

“They won’t admit they’re ever wrong,” said Bowman, who has represented defendants in wrongful-conviction lawsuits against the Chicago Police Department. “I can’t remember a member of the Chicago Police Department acknowledging they made a mistake.”

Told what McKay said about her son, Nanci Koschman said: “I don’t care what David said or did. There was no justification for this guy to punch my son and then run away. When he ran away, he knew he shouldn’t have done it.”

Cirone, who followed his father into the police department 27 years ago, was among six officers singled out for their actions by special prosecutor Webb, a former U.S. attorney who is now serving as special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case. Though Webb didn’t charge them with any crime, Webb said he considered filing obstruction of justice charges against them for making up “a phony self-defense determination” to justify not charging Vanecko in 2004 or 2011. Ultimately, Webb decided he didn’t have enough evidence to convict them.

City Hall’s inspector general, Joseph Ferguson, investigated the case and recommended disciplinary action be taken against the same six cops. Based on that, John Escalante, at the time the interim police superintendent, sought to fire two of them, Lt. Denis P. Walsh and Detective James Gilger, and give one-year suspensions to the others — Cirone,  Deputy Chief of Detectives Constantine “Dean” Andrews, Commander Joseph Salemme and Detective Nicholas “Nick” Spanos.

Andrews, Gilger, Salemme and Walsh avoided any punishment by retiring. Spanos served about two months of his suspension and remains a detective.

Salemme and Spanos testified at Cirone’s hearing. Andrews and Gilger ignored subpoenas from the city to testify.

The police board, a panel of mayoral appointees, will get the hearing officer’s recommendation and could rule in October. It has the authority to go ahead with the one-year suspension Escalante sought, clear Cirone or decide he deserves a lesser, or harsher, punishment.

It’s taken years for the case to come before the police board because Cirone and the police sergeants union fought to keep his case from getting that far. They went all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, which refused last year to hear their challenge of the police board’s authority.

Cirone has continued to make a six-figure salary during that time while also collecting tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay and building his police pension. He now supervises five detectives who work on cold cases on the North Side and Northwest Side.

He’s accused of violating five department rules because he “failed to ensure” that Gilger and Spanos “completed a thorough investigation” during the reinvestigation of the Koschman case in 2011. According to the disciplinary charges, Cirone’s detectives didn’t:

• Interview Officer Edwin Tremore, the first cop to arrive after Vanecko hit Koschman, causing Koschman to strike his head on the curb at 43 W. Division St. Cirone and other witnesses testified it wasn’t necessary to interview Tremore because his report was thorough.

• Interview the detectives from the original 2004 investigation. Cirone said they had summary reports from those detectives, though many of the files from the initial investigation were missing and still are.

• Canvas the area for witnesses or video. Cirone said it would have been pointless to do so nearly seven years later. But the city’s lawyers, Abigail Clapp and David Repking, noted that Webb’s staff subsequently interviewed bar owners in the area and found that one of them — at the tavern Mother’s — had video of Koschman and the group of friends he was with leaving the bar.

• Get cellphone records from Vanecko or friends who were with him: Bridget Higgins McCarthy, her husband Kevin McCarthy and Craig Denham. Cirone and the other cops said they didn’t think those records would still exist and were surprised to learn that Webb’s investigators obtained phone records showing Bridget McCarthy and Vanecko exchanged several calls as Koschman was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

• Question Denham about conversations he had with Vanecko after they took off and didn’t ask them to identify the bar they then went to. Cirone and his witnesses said they weren’t sure whether Gilger and Spanos asked those questions. They pointed out that Gilger’s reports show Denham wouldn’t elaborate on what he told the police in 2004.

• Write an accurate, objective report. They wrote that Vanecko threw the punch after Koschman told him, “F— you! I’ll kick your ass!”

Cirone helped Gilger edit that final report, based on “corrections” and “issues” raised by Andrews, the night before it was submitted. Cirone testified that part of the quotation attributed to Koschman came from Kevin McCarthy, who lied to the police twice, saying he didn’t know the guys who were arguing with Koschman and took off.

Weeks later, after acknowledging his involvement, McCarthy told detectives in 2004 that Koschman and one of his friends had yelled, “I’ll kick your ass.” Cirone said the rest of the quote came from a 2011 interview with Koschman’s friend Scott Allen, who said everyone was yelling, “Screw you.”

Gilger’s report didn’t include Allen’s statement that Vanecko and his group were the aggressors in the confrontation. Cirone said that should have been noted.

The Sun-Times’ front page after Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko pleaded guilty.

Johnson, the hearing officer, said it appeared Gilger’s report included statements to support the argument that Vanecko acted in self-defense but omitted others contradicting that. “The city’s theory is that the report was written to support the conclusion, and Allen’s statement and stuff that would get in the way are thrown out,” Johnson said.

Cirone’s lawyer said the sergeant shouldn’t be held responsible for the final report, which the police department used to close the case in 2011 without charging Vanecko. McKay said that’s because Cirone was off when the report was turned in, the day after he made the edits Andrews wanted. So Sgt. Thomas Mills signed off on it as the approving supervisor.

Other highlights of what Cirone and the others involved told the hearing officer, which marked the first time that any of them had testified publicly about the Koschman case:

Former police Commander Joseph Salemme, who retired while facing a suspension as a result of the David Koschman case: “Whatever Vanecko did was reasonable and justified.” | Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times

Former Commander Joseph Salemme

Salemme — the commander whose detectives were assigned to reinvestigate the case in 2011 — said the police didn’t decide to close the case without charging Vanecko because his uncle was still mayor.

“Was the reinvestigation of the David Koschman death done any different because of who Vanecko was related to?” McKay asked.

“No, sir,” Salemme said. “It was a clear case of [Koschman] being the aggressor. And whatever Vanecko did was reasonable and justified. This was so lacking on the part of any criminality on Vanecko’s part. I don’t know why I’m sitting here today.”

Salemme said he assigned Cirone the case because “he was my best sergeant.”

Sgt. Sam Cirone after a Chicago Police Board hearing. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times

Sgt. Sam Cirone

Cirone testified that, once the case was assigned to Gilger and his partner Spanos, he had little contact with them during the investigation, which began in mid-January 2011 and ended Feb. 28, 2011.

He told the hearing officer he didn’t order Gilger and Spanos to interview the police who investigated the case in 2004 — but Cirone also didn’t tell them not to.

“I don’t micromanage experienced detectives,” Cirone said. “Our assignment wasn’t to investigate the police. It was to investigate the case.”

Detective Nicholas Spanos

Spanos, who was the junior detective on the reinvestigation, said he and Gilger canvassed the area but didn’t note that in a report.

“We went to the scene, and we looked for video seven years later,” Spanos said. “I can’t recall if we got out of the car. We didn’t document it because we didn’t get any evidence.”

Former Detective Ronald Yawger, who investigated David Koschman’s death in 2004, testified he told prosecutors then: “If we let this guy walk out of here, we’re going to look like idiots when the newspapers hear about this.” | Facebook

Former Detective Ronald Yawger

Yawger — who took retirement from the police department and has spent the past dozen years as an investigator for the Illinois attorney general’s office — took over the 2004 investigation after Koschman’s death.

He testified that charging Vanecko would have been difficult because no one identified him in a lineup. He said he called the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to let that agency decide whether Vanecko should be charged.

“There was nothing to charge him with,” Yawger said. “I just wanted to get out from under it.

“They said, ‘What are you calling us for?’ I said, ‘I have the mayor’s nephew here. Somebody else has to make this decision.’ I said, ‘If we let this guy walk out of here, we’re going to look like idiots when the newspapers hear about this.’ ”

Yawger also said he canvassed the area looking for video but found none and didn’t file a report about that. Many of his “progress” reports in the case have been missing for years.

Darren O’Brien, former head of felony review for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, on the death of David Koschman: “My conclusion was no crime was committed.” | Sun-Times files

Former prosecutor Darren O’Brien

O’Brien, who headed the state’s attorney’s felony review unit in 2004, testified that it was “reasonable” for Vanecko to punch the much-smaller Koschman because he was running towards Vanecko and his companions.

“Even if they all stood up there and said Richard Vanecko punched David Koschman, I still had a self-defense issue,” O’Brien said. “My conclusion was no crime was committed. It was a tragedy, no doubt about it. To me, one punch or push was reasonable. There’s no requirement in the law that you’ve got to let the little guy get the first punch in.”

O’Brien said he didn’t take any notes while interviewing witnesses. The state’s attorney’s file on the case also has been missing for years.

After the state’s attorney declined to charge anyone in 2004, detectives stopped investigating. The case remained officially an open, unsolved homicide until the Sun-Times filed a public records request for files from the investigation in January 2011, in the waning months of the Daley administration, prompting the police to order a new investigation.

Former Chicago police Supt. Phil Cline entering a Chicago Police Board hearing for Sgt. Sam Cirone. Cline praised Cirone, saying he asked that his own son be trained by him because “I wanted my son to be trained by the very best.” | Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times

Former Supt. Phil Cline

Cline, the city’s top cop at the time of Koschman’s death, was one of three witnesses McKay had testify about Cirone’s character and wasn’t questioned about the investigation.

In 2004, Cline had publicly announced “there’s no basis for criminal charges” against the mayor’s nephew.

Cline praised Cirone’s skill as an investigator, saying he was “a go-to guy” for big, so-called “heater” cases. He said he had requested that Cirone train his son, Matthew Cline, as a detective: “I wanted my son to be trained by the very best.”

Outside the hearing, Cline wouldn’t discuss the Koschman investigation, saying, “I’ll let everything speak for itself.”

READ MORE

• READ: original Sun-Times investigation

David Koschman with his mother Nanci Koschman. | Provided photo

By SAM CHARLES
Staff Reporter

The Chicago Sun-Times violated federal privacy law in publishing the birth months and years, heights, weights and hair and eye colors of five Chicago police officers who acted as “fillers” in a police lineup involving a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley, a federal judge has ruled.

Officers Scott Dahlstrom, Hugh Gallagly, Peter Kelly, Robert Shea and Emmet Welch sued the Sun-Times in 2012, saying a story published Nov. 21, 2011, violated the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act and left them “gravely concerned for their safety.”

The details were included in a story about Chicago Police Department lineups in 2004 that included the officers, who matched or even dwarfed the 6-3, 230-pound Vanecko in size — lineups in which witnesses couldn’t pick out the man who punched David Koschman in a drunken encounter near Rush Street on April 25, 2004.

That was one of a series of stories that led to the court-ordered reopening of the investigation under a special prosecutor and the conviction of Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko for involuntary manslaughter a decade after he threw the punch that led to the 21-year-old Mount Prospect man’s death days later and then ran away. Daley’s nephew spent 60 days in jail.

The officers’ names were listed in police reports obtained by the Sun-Times, which got much of the other information from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office.

A lawyer for the Sun-Times had argued the newspaper “could not have ‘knowingly’ violated the DPPA because it relied on the secretary’s authorization of the information.”

But, on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber ruled in favor of the officers in the civil case. The judge said the secretary of state’s office itself might have violated the privacy law by releasing the information, but that didn’t get the Sun-Times off the hook.

Leinenweber noted that Donna Leonard, a lawyer for the secretary of state, had said in an affidavit that the agency had released the information because it “was not ‘personal’ information under the DPPA.”

RELATED:

• The killing of David Koschman | A Sun-Times Watchdogs investigation

But the judge wrote: “The Secretary might have violated Section 2721(a) — which prohibits the Secretary from ‘knowingly disclos[ing] personal information — but its violation does not immunize the Sun-Times from liability.”

“Put simply, an initial violation by one party does not negate subsequent violations by another,” Leinenweber wrote.

Each officer sued for $2,500 in actual damages, “punitive damages upon proof of willful or reckless disregard of the law” and attorneys’ fees. The judge didn’t rule on damages.

Lawyers for the five officers couldn’t be reached Friday.

Damon Dunn, an attorney for the Sun-Times, said the newspaper “is gravely concerned” the judge’s decision might have a chilling effect on newsgathering nationwide and that “an appeal is necessary and in the public interest.”

“The takeaway is that reporters are no longer safe to even ask government agencies for information, let alone publish the answers they receive,” Dunn said. “That would stand the First Amendment on its head.”

By SAM CHARLES
Staff Reporter

The last Chicago cop facing discipline in the David Koschman case has lost a court appeal to block the Chicago Police Board from acting on a recommendation to suspend him for a year.

On Friday, the Illinois Appellate Court reversed Cook County Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos’ ruling last year that Sgt. Sam Cirone could have his punishment decided by an independent arbitrator rather than the police board, a panel of mayoral appointees.

City Hall appealed, and the appeals court agreed that disciplinary action against Cirone — and any other sergeant facing a recommended punishment at least as harsh as a suspension of more than 30 days — should be decided by the board.

The lawsuit filed by the police sergeants union also had blocked the board from acting on Supt. Eddie Johnson’s recommendation to give a 270-day suspension to Sgt. Jack Axium, who was accused of using the “N-word” to refer to then-President Barack Obama in 2015.

Dan Herbert, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In February 2016, John Escalante, then the interim police superintendent, recommended Cirone serve a year’s unpaid suspension for his role in closing the 2011 investigation of Koschman’s death without charging his attacker, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko.

Days after Escalante’s recommendation, Cirone filed a union grievance, arguing the city waited too long to punish him.

City Hall argued the police board has to rule on any suspension of 30 days or more, under the city code and state law. The board also can issue a harsher punishment than what’s recommended.

George Roumell, the arbitrator who heard Cirone’s union grievance, ruled against the city. He found that the union contract allows sergeants facing suspensions of 11 days or longer to have their cases decided by an arbitrator.

Cirone, a second-generation Chicago cop, was the last of six officers facing punishment over the re-investigation of Koschman’s death. Four left the department. One served his suspension.

Cirone supervised the two detectives who re-examined the case. The city’s inspector general found that the detectives failed to do a thorough investigation and that their final report relied on a made-up witness statement to justify closing the case in March 2011 without charging Daley’s nephew.

Sun-Times reporting on the case led to the appointment of a special prosecutor and Vanecko going to jail for two months for involuntary manslaughter.

By TIM NOVAK
Staff Reporter

Will Chicagoans ever find out what then-Mayor Richard M. Daley knew about the Chicago Police Department investigation that allowed his nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko to escape criminal charges in a homicide case for a decade?

The Illinois Appellate Court’s answer: no.

A written statement that Daley gave to a grand jury regarding the investigation must remain under lock and key because grand jury secrecy trumps the public’s right to know what Daley said, according to a new ruling from the appeals court.

The statement Daley crafted four years ago came as he and other Daley family members were being interviewed by lawyers working under the direction of Dan K. Webb, the court-appointed special prosecutor who ended up sending Vanecko to jail for a punch that caused David Koschman’s death in 2004.

In 2015, the Better Government Association sued, asking the courts to release Daley’s statement and other Vanecko case materials. Webb fought that effort. Taking Webb’s side, the Illinois Appellate Court rejected nearly all of the BGA’s arguments on Oct. 20. The justices said the BGA might be able to see Webb’s detailed bills — provided the bills don’t disclose any grand jury material.

It’s unclear whether the BGA will appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, which previously had to appoint a judge from McHenry County to preside over the case because so many Cook County judges have political ties to the Daley family. Vanecko ended up pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Lawyers for Koschman’s mother Nanci Koschman say the public is entitled to know what Daley said about the police investigation that for years shielded his nephew from prosecution.

There’s precedent to release the grand jury material, says G. Flint Taylor, an attorney for Nanci Koshman. Eleven years ago, Cook County Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel released grand jury records — including detailed interview reports — gathered by special prosecutors investigating cases of black men tortured under Lt. Jon Burge to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. City Hall has paid more than $100 million to settle civil lawsuits filed by Taylor and others related to those cases.

“The public’s right to know should trump grand jury secrecy in cases . . . where high public officials are under scrutiny,” Taylor says. “Why doesn’t Webb want the public to know what kind of statement he took from Daley? There’s a right to know what he told Webb. And there’s a right to know how detailed and probing Webb and his team were in this important public case.”

David Koschman | Provided photo

Webb declined to comment. Daley didn’t respond to written questions, including whether he would release the statement he gave Webb.

In a 162-page report issued after Vanecko pleaded guilty in 2014, Webb said Daley said he never had “substantive” discussions with his staff about the case, that the former mayor “characterized his actions as ‘recusing’ himself from the matter” and that there was no evidence that Daley or his family attempted to influence the police investigation.

Vanecko, then 29, punched Koschman, 21, during a drunken encounter in the Rush Street nightlife district on April 24, 2004, ran away and was never arrested. Koschman died 11 days later, but his case remained unsolved until the Chicago Sun-Times began investigating. As a result of the Sun-Times’ reporting, Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Toomin appointed Webb special prosecutor. Webb convened a grand jury and secured a “protective order” from Toomin to prohibit the release of any grand jury material.

Beside prosecuting Vanecko, Webb investigated police and prosecutors. His report cited numerous problems with their handling of the case, but Webb never filed charges against anyone else.

The three appeals court judges — Mathias Delort, Joy Cunningham and Thomas Hoffman — said in their unanimous ruling that releasing Daley’s statement and other materials might undermine other grand juries, precluding witnesses from giving “candid, complete and trustworthy testimony” if they fear their names and statements might be disclosed.

Richard “R.J.” Vanecko. | Sun-Times files

Grand jury material is often disclosed during criminal trials. But Vanecko’s guilty plea meant the public didn’t get to hear any of the grand jury evidence.

One of the appellate justices, Hoffman, is a former Chicago cop who spent years as an attorney in City Hall’s Law Department under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, Vanecko’s grandfather.

And Cunningham was the general counsel for Northwestern Memorial Hospital when doctors there were trying to save Koschman’s life. While working for Northwestern, she gave $500 to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s re-election campaign. When she was running for the appellate court, she received a $200 campaign contribution from one of the hospital’s top doctors, Robert M. Vanecko, the father of Koschman’s assailant.

By TIM NOVAK and CHRIS  FUSCO
Staff Reporters

A Chicago Police Department sergeant who’s facing a one-year suspension over a falsified report that cleared a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley of wrongdoing in the killing of David Koschman says the city waited too long to punish him, in violation of his union’s contract, and can’t discipline him now.

Sgt. Samuel Cirone — one of six cops who faced firing or suspension over the handling of the Koschman investigation — is also asking a Cook County judge to stop the Chicago Police Board from hearing his case because an arbitrator has ruled that he has the authority to determine whether Cirone should be punished.

The city’s law department plans to proceed with the police board case, saying the arbitrator has no authority to decide Cirone’s fate. The city also says the disciplinary investigation of Cirone was, in fact, done in a timely manner and didn’t violate the sergeants union’s contract.

Cook County Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos has scheduled a Dec. 30 hearing on Cirone’s motion to dismiss the police board case, which is set to come before the board on Oct. 18.

After the police department closed the Koschman case in 2011 without filing charges against Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, Koschman’s mother convinced a Cook County judge to appoint a special prosecutor, Dan K. Webb, to reopen the case. Webb’s investigation led to Vanecko’s indictment, guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter and two-month jail sentence.

Webb has said he considered filing criminal charges against Cirone and the five other cops but decided he didn’t have enough evidence to convict them. Instead, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and then-police Supt. Garry McCarthy directed City Hall Inspector General Joseph Ferguson to determine whether the cops should be punished.

David Koschman. | File photo

Ferguson recommended the city fire Chief of Detectives Constantine “Dean” Andrews, Lt. Denis P. Walsh and Detective James Gilger and that the three others — Cirone, Cmdr. Joseph Salemme and Detective Nick Spanos — also face punishments and possibly firing over the Koschman case.

But Andrews, Gilger, Salemme and Walsh retired before they could face punishment.

Spanos and Cirone, who each got one-year suspensions, aren’t old enough to retire. Spanos served his suspension primarily by cashing in vacation time and unused compensatory time off. Cirone remains on the police payroll in an administrative position.

The flap over Cirone’s suspension comes amid a U.S. Justice Department investigation over Chicago Police Department practices.

The city’s disciplinary system for officers has come under fire for being too slow and for the fraction of complaints that result in disciplinary cases against cops.

By CHRIS  FUSCO and TIM NOVAK
Staff Reporters

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko has completed his involuntary-manslaughter sentence for throwing a punch that killed David Koschman in 2004.

Maureen P. McIntyre — the McHenry County judge who handled the case after the Illinois Supreme Court decided too many Cook County judges have connections to the Daley family — terminated Vanecko’s probation Friday during a brief hearing in Woodstock.

Vanecko declined to comment leaving court.

After twice being cleared by the Chicago Police Department when Daley was mayor, Vanecko pleaded guilty on Jan. 31, 2014, following a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that led to the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Now 41, Vanecko was given a 30-month sentence — 60 days in jail, 60 days on home confinement and the rest on probation — for the crime he committed when he was 29. At the time of his conviction, he was living in Costa Mesa, Calif., and working as a millwright. It’s unclear where he lives now.

Vanecko’s exit from Cook County’s probation rolls follows Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration’s decision earlier this year to fire or suspend six police officers involved in a 2011 reinvestigation of Koschman’s death prompted by the Sun-Times reporting. That investigation concluded that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Vanecko punched the 5-foot-5, 125-pound Koschman in self-defense outside the late-night bars along Division Street on April 25, 2004. Koschman, 21, died of brain injuries 11 days later.

Special prosecutor Dan K. Webb impaneled a grand jury that indicted Vanecko in December 2012 and produced a report that attacked the police department’s self-defense conclusion and documented other problems with the 2004 and 2011 police investigations.

Webb, a former U.S. attorney, named the six cops in his report, saying he considered charging them with obstructing justice or official misconduct but didn’t have enough evidence to convict them.

Four of those officers — Chief of Detectives Constantine “Dean” Andrews, Cmdr. Joseph Salemme, Lt. Denis P. Walsh and Detective James Gilger — retired, avoiding discipline.

Detective Nicholas Spanos went back on the job this month after shaving 10 months off his one-year, unpaid suspension by cashing in accrued paid-leave time.

Sgt. Sam Cirone is challenging his one-year suspension before the Chicago Police Board. Meanwhile, Cirone is still collecting his salary and has full police powers while working “in an administrative role in the detective division,” according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.