Building RSHC: Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP 2017 Annual Report - Report - Page 15
“All our clients… can rely on RSHC to stand up for them when
the heat is on.”
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We are pursuing a new trial, based on new evidence, for a former Indiana police officer serving an 80-year
sentence for homicide and arson convictions. After a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit denied our appeal, we petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for relief. In a highly unusual statement,
three Seventh Circuit judges urged the high court to take this case because of the “unusually strong
evidence” of the officer’s innocence.
In April 2016, Ron Safer and a team of RSHC lawyers greeted Eddie Bolden after he was released from prison
after serving 22 years for a drug-related murder he did not commit. Safer had worked for six years to win
Bolden’s release.
Sometimes a photo is all the recognition we’d ever need. Pictured here: Our friend and colleague Eddie Bolden embracing
our partner Ron Safer just after Bolden was released from prison.
Serving as Special Prosecutor
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In July 2016, the presiding judge of Cook County Criminal Court appointed Patricia Brown Holmes as special
prosecutor to investigate an alleged cover-up following the police shooting of a 17-year-old in Chicago.
After a tape of the incident was released, street protests roiled the city, and authorities filed murder charges
against the police officer who shot Laquan McDonald. When Holmes was appointed, she spoke of “the grave
responsibility” she had to the public. Thus far, her investigation has led to the indictment of one current and two
former police officers on felony obstruction of justice charges for which she has the complete burden of proof
at trial. Kelly Warner and Brian Watson, among other RSHC lawyers, are assisting Holmes as the criminal case
continues to trial.
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