The David Koschman case
April 12, 2011 9:36AM
Updated: December 11, 2012 6:08PM
David Koschman died of massive brain injuries on May 6, 2004 — 11 days after he was punched in the face and knocked to the ground in a drunken confrontation in Chicago’s Rush Street nightlife district.
For seven years, the Chicago Police Department classified the death of the 21-year-old part-time college student from Mount Prospect as an unsolved homicide — until a Chicago Sun-Times investigation by reporters Tim Novak, Chris Fusco and Carol Marin prompted the police superintendent to order a new look at the case in early 2011 that concluded that a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had punched Koschman and run off afterward.
But even after identifying Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko as having thrown the punch that led to Koschman’s death, the police chose not to take the politically charged case to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to seek criminal charges. They said Vanecko had acted in self-defense, even though witnesses cast doubt on that conclusion and Vanecko — a former college football player who was nearly 100 pounds heavier and a foot taller than Koschman — refused to talk with detectives.
The case could have died there. But the reporters kept digging. For month after month, they uncovered new details casting doubt on the official story.
More than a year after the first Sun-Times report was published, a judge, citing the newspaper’s findings, agreed to a request by Koschman’s mother to take the unusual step of appointing a special prosecutor to reinvestigate the case.
Declaring “the system has failed” David Koschman, Cook County Circuit Judge Michael P. Toomin lashed out at the self-defense theory as a “fiction,” saying, “This was a defense conjured up by police and prosecutors.”
Toomin also said police reports apparently had been fabricated to portray Koschman as the aggressor in the confrontation, contrary to sworn statements from witnesses.
In addition to determining whether the Daley nephew should be charged in Koschman’s death, the judge directed the special prosecutor — former U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb — to investigate whether “employees of the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office acted intentionally to suppress and conceal evidence, furnish false evidence and generally impede the investigation into Mr. Koschman’s death.”
On Dec. 3, 2012, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Vanecko with involuntary manslaughter. That completed the first part of its job. It continues to look into the conduct of police and prosecutors.
