CHICAGO, IL — Lawyers for the Chicago police officer facing a murder charge in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss the case on the grounds that the prosecution's case is wrongly built around the statements of other cops, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The motion to dismiss by Officer Jason Van Dyke's attorneys argues that statements by their client and other members of the force to the Independent Police Review Authority and Chicago's Office of Inspector General were obtained by threatening the officers with losing their jobs, making them off limits in a criminal case, the report stated. Those statements then were allegedly given to the grand jury and leaked to the media, the report added. Judge Vincent Gaughan is waiting to rule on the motion in order to allow Kane County State's Attorney Joseph McMahon, the special prosecutor assigned to the McDonald case, the chance to file a written response, according to the Tribune.

Van Dyke is accused of shooting the 17-year-old McDonald 16 times Oct. 20, 2014, during an incident on the city's South Side. Initial police reports claimed the teen was swinging a knife and lunging at Van Dyke before the officer opened fire. But after a contentious legal battle with city officials that lasted more than a year, a judge ordered the release of a video from a police dashboard camera that told a different story. In the video, McDonald is not seen as aggressively moving toward Van Dyke. Instead, he's seen walking away from Van Dyke when he is shot, and the officer continues to fire even after McDonald is on the ground.

Gaughan, who has previously presided over high-profile cases, such as the Brown's Chicken massacre and R. Kelly's child pornography trial, reversed a juvenile court judge's ruling and ordered the release of McDonald's juvenile records — barring records concerning the victim's birth mother and sister — to the defense.

McMahon submitted a separate court filing that claims none of Van Dyke's 16 shots against McDonald were justified. More via the Chicago Tribune

