Chicago activist Deborah Mell was acquitted of battery charges last week after a half-day bench trial before Judge Mark Ballard.
Mell’s attorney, Joey Mogul, said prosecutors could not provide any firm corroborating witnesses for the one police officer who claimed Mell barreled over her during a same-sex marriage protest earlier this year.
The officer who claimed Mell attacked her did not take off time from work the day of the incident, but later said the injuries caused her to take more than four months off work. But Mogul said the officer provided no medical records or any photos of the alleged injuries, ‘all of which shed huge doubt on any of her claims or allegations,’ Mogul said.
‘Neither the police, or the state, could find a witness, including other police officers, to support these allegations,’ Mogul said.
‘We had a witness [who] substantiated what Mel said,’ Mogul said. ‘Deborah Mell is now free and clear.’
The case was covered nationally because Mell is the daughter of Chicago Ald. Richard Mell and sister-in-law to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.