Chicago's Top Lawyer Resigns Over Anjanette Young Video Debacle

CHICAGO – City attorney Mark Flessner resigned as Mayor Lori Lightfoot's top lawyer Sunday over his office's efforts to keep secret video of the botched police raid of social worker Anjanette Young's home.

In a tweet, Flessner announced his departure Sunday in a Twitter post. "Today I have offered my letter of resignation as Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago. It has been an honor to work alongside my friend [Mayor Lightfoot] for the last two years," he wrote.

Chicago's law department led by Flessner came under fire earlier this month when city lawyers attempted to block CBS2 from airing video of police wrongly raiding the home of Anjanette Young, who officers handcuffed naked while looking for a wanted man who did not live there.

Lightfoot said if she knew about the attempt to block the news station from airing the leaked video, she would have stopped the legal move "in its tracks."

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Young's attorney, Keenan Saulter, criticized Lightfoot's law department for going to great lengths to make the video public at his client's request. City lawyers also had denied Young's Freedom of Information request to have the video released.

"The audacity of the corporation counsel's office — after everything that's occurred in 2020, on the heels of Breonna Taylor being murdered in her home in a very eerily similar circumstance — how can you justify that your response is, 'Don't tell the public.'" Saulter said at a news conference outside police headquarters. "That is unacceptable. We can't stand for that. That's not justice. That's not righteousness. And that's not the kind of administration Mayor Lightfoot said she wanted to run."

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Lightfoot initially denied knowing about the botched raid on Young's house, but later said she had been alerted of the incident in emails. On Friday, Lightfoot's office released a statement saying the law department "failed to search all potential locations where corresponding [body-worn camera] video could be located."

City lawyers only turned over 14 videos to Young's attorneys as part of a federal lawsuit. Last week, after CBS2 aired some video showing Young handcuffed naked and telling police they raided the wrong house, Lightfoot ordered all the videos be made publicly. As the result of the mayor's order, six additional body-camera videos were discovered.

"While this failure to produce the additional six videotapes was inadvertent and not intentional, nonetheless, it was completely unacceptable. The Mayor has directed that all individuals responsible for this discovery failure be identified so they can be held accountable," the City Hall statement said.

Flessner tendered his resignation two days later. Lightfoot accepted accepted his resignation "effective immediately."

" I want to thank [Flessner] for his service to the City of Chicago. I am committed to a full review of everything that occurred surrounding this incident, will take corrective action where appropriate, and will hold people accountable," the mayor said in a statement.