Vanecko indictment doesn’t close the Koschman investigation

Editorial Staff, Illinois PayToPlay

There remains the matter of how the investigation of David Koschman’s death died before it ever really got started back in 2004.

As some in the Chicago media applaud themselves for having doggedly pursued the case for over eight years – a self-serving, silly exaggeration – serious unanswered questions remain.

The scope of those unanswered questions was suggested by the judge who kicked-off the re-examination – if there ever was an original search for the truth - of Koschman’s death as reported by the Sun Times:

“Cook County Circuit Judge Michael P. Toomin in announcing his ruling that a special prosecutor will re-examine the 2004 death of David Koschman after being punched by Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley” stated that: ‘A decided interest in preventing or impeding the prosecution, a denigration of the existing exculpatory evidence and, probably the most prominent impropriety, the fiction of self-defense, supported only by oft-repeated conclusions that David Koschman was the aggressor, a host of statements in the exhibits, detectives, particularly Detective [James] Gilger, the last to be quoted, Superintendent Phil Cline, Mr. O’Brien and the state’s attorney herself.’”

IP2P reported in April 2012 that: 

“It’s beyond dispute that Cline played a pivotal role in assuring that the investigation into the fatal assault on David Koschman was stunted by the ‘oft-repeated conclusions that David Koschman was the aggressor’. So, how long have the feds known that Cline was, according to a June 2011 email sent from Daniel T. Frawley to a confidential source simply referred to as ‘Bob,’ a protective ‘buddy’ of Frank McMahon?”

The initial inquiry into the Koschman death didn’t die on its own.  It was killed, and buried, by a cabal of city and county officials who wanted it to go away. Any other explanation of what happened in 2004 requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

Consequently, the story of David Koschman’s tragic death will not be completed until we know who spiked the initial investigation.

So we wonder: Are there more indictments yet to come from the Grand Jury?  Or is Vanecko the end of it?  

If his indictment is all there is, we predict Vanecko will plea bargain a sentence of several years probation.

Rather than a public civil trial, negotiations with Vanecko’s legal counsel will lead to an out-of-court settlement involving an undisclosed payment to Mrs. Koschman for the wrongful death of her only son.  

The Sun Times will applaud itself for having played a key role in bringing closure to the Koschman family.

And, the current City Hall regime will privately celebrate having orchestrated a puppet show that brought embarrassment to the previous regime.

Mission accomplished.

And it will be just one more case of justice delayed being justice denied.

The Chicago Way.