Steve Mills

Innocent prisoners jailed in same cell forge friendship, and freedom

June 16, 2018 at 2:38 p.m.

Dana Holland and Christopher Coleman became friends in a downstate prison cell where, through the iron bars and the nearby windows, they could see the Mississippi River and its suggestion...

Judge: Using Taser, dragging Coleman from lockup amounts to ‘brute force’

May 23, 2019 at 2:05 a.m.

A federal judge ruled Monday that a Chicago police employee used "brute force" when he dragged a handcuffed suspect out of his cell and down a police station hallway in...

Percy Coleman speaks about his son, Philip O. Coleman, outside his Chicago home on Dec. 14, 2012. Coleman died after Chicago police used a taser on him in December 2012.

Video shows Taser used on Philip Coleman in Chicago police custody

June 16, 2018 at 2:57 p.m.

Amid a growing crisis over the Chicago Police Department's use of force, the city late Monday released a video that shows officers in a Far South Side police lockup repeatedly...

New video shows suspect hit with Taser in Chicago police lockup

May 23, 2019 at 2:03 a.m.

Amid a growing crisis over the Chicago Police Department's use of force, the city late Monday released a video that shows officers in a Far South Side police lockup repeatedly...

Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was ousted from his post Dec. 1, 2015, after uproar over the video showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot by police.

Feds to conduct civil rights probe of Chicago police

March 30, 2019 at 10:07 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Justice will open a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department after the release of video of a patrolman's fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald...

When off-duty police fire their weapons

June 16, 2018 at 3:39 p.m.

Hours after Officer Phyllis Clinkscales fatally shot a young man trying to steal her car, Chicago police investigators and commanders ruled the shooting justified. They have stood by that conclusion...

Chicago police officer Gildardo Sierra leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.

Chicago’s flawed system for investigating police shootings

December 23, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.

It is a system seemingly designed to fail. Chicago police officers enforce a code of silence to protect one another when they shoot a citizen, giving some a sense they...

Melvin Moore is a paroled inmate being sued by the Illinois Department of Corrections to recoup the costs of incarceration.

State sues prisoners to pay for their room, board

May 23, 2019 at 2:01 a.m.

The $31,690 Johnny Melton received to settle a lawsuit over his mother's death was going to help him start life anew after prison. But before he was released, after 15...

Corey Batchelor, 45, spent about 15 years in prison for a 1989 murder. He is still trying to prove his innocence, alleging that detectives who worked under disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge tortured him into confessing at age 19 to the fatal South Side stabbing.

Alleged Burge-era torture case falls through the cracks

August 19, 2019 at 4:08 a.m.

Corey Batchelor has been out of prison for more than a decade, but he is still trying to prove his innocence in a 1989 murder. Batchelor alleges detectives tied to...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivers his budget address to the Chicago City Council on Sept. 22, 2015. The Tribune filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that Emanuel violated state open records laws.

Tribune sues Emanuel over use of private email

August 19, 2019 at 3:45 a.m.

The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that Mayor Rahm Emanuel violated state open records laws by refusing to release communications about city business conducted through private emails and...

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