It was perfectly OK for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to release the video of the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald BEFORE the trial of the accused Jason Van Dyke but Rahm Emanuel WON'T release his and other e-mails regarding this incident.... Chicago Tribune sues Police Department over Laquan McDonald emails

The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit Monday against the Chicago Police Department, complaining that it had not received public records it requested nearly a year ago related to the police shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald.

The lawsuit said the Tribune filed a Freedom of Information Act request Dec. 17, 2015, seeking police employees' emails connected to the death of McDonald, who was shot 16 times in October 2014. Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with murder in the case, which inspired widespread protests a year ago when video of the shooting was released.

According to the lawsuit, the Police Department said the initial request by reporter Stacy St. Clair was "unduly burdensome." The Tribune scaled back its request twice and was told March 21 that it would receive 375 emails the next day, according to the suit. But they never arrived, the suit said.

An inquiry to the city's Law Department was referred to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who released a short statement noting that the department "responds to thousands of public information requests each year," and the department added resources in the last year to respond to requests more quickly.

The department "will work to produce these records as quickly as possible," Guglielmi said in the statement.

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