Undercover Chicago Police Sgt. Eugene Shepherd, who posed as a drug dealer in the probe of corruption in the Austin Police District, concluded his testimony Tuesday but not before he was asked to step down briefly from the witness stand in an unusual move.
Attorney Sheldon Nagelberg had his client, Alex Ramos, one of four tactical officers on trial, stand beside Shepherd, who posed as a drug dealer nicknamed “Silky.”
At 6-foot-2, Shepherd towered over the diminutive Ramos.
The point Nagelberg was apparently trying to make was that Ramos had been intimidated into agreeing to provide protection for Silky’s narcotics deliveries.
That pivotal meeting was videotaped by authorities.
But U.S. District Judge Ann Williams sustained a prosecutor’s objection to Nagelberg’s question about Shepherd casting “an imposing figure.”
