A panel of Illinois Appellate Court judges on Friday reversed a Cook County judge’s order that barred the release of body-worn camera footage capturing the 2025 fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera by a fellow officer.
In an opinion made public Friday, the panel found Cook County Judge Barbara Dawkins incorrectly denied a motion last year filed by several Chicago media outlets to lift a protective order on the footage. But while the protective order was lifted, the appellate judges said the city may still withhold the videos on other grounds.
“It is clear that the trial court applied the wrong law to reach its conclusion that it could sua sponte bar the release of public records by a nonparty entity,” the opinion stated. “Nothing in this decision requires the release of the materials named … nor does it bar the parties to the criminal case from filing appropriate motions … if they can show cause for a protective order.”
Representatives for the Chicago Police Department, the city’s Law Department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability declined to comment on the opinion. A representative for Rivera’s family couldn’t be reached.
Rivera’s family, which is suing the city, has raised questions about the shooting and called on officials to release body camera footage.
“From this moment forward, my purpose is simple: that those responsible for her death must be held accountable,” her mother, Yolanda Rivera, said in a news conference last year.
CPD Officer Carlos Baker, who fired the shot that killed Rivera, has been stripped of his police powers, but is not facing any criminal charges.
The criminal cases at the center of the judge’s order to bar disclosure are against two men, Adrian Rucker and Jaylin Arnold, facing charges of armed violence and other felonies in connection with the underlying events around Rivera’s shooting.
Last year, Cook County prosecutors first asked that video footage be barred from disclosure via Freedom of Information Act laws, which was then granted by Judge Deidre Dyer.
Later, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Better Government Association, NBC Chicago and Jamie Kalven, founder of the Invisible Institute, filed a motion in court to intervene in the case, arguing that the state provided no “legal or factual justification” to deviate from public records laws.
