Credits: Anamorphic Mike via Creative Commons
The death of David Koschman was “a tragedy all the way around,” but Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko is “basically a good kid,” Vanecko’s uncle William Daley said Tuesday according to the Sun-Times.
Just one punch was thrown, but it resulted in the death of a young man and a grand jury indictment of former Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman.
When 6-foot-3 and 230-pound, Vanecko punched 5-foot-5 and 125-pound Koschman he probably didn’t think it would end up causing the death of the young man, but it did.
The grand jury found that Richard J. Vanecko “recklessly performed acts which were likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another” in Koschman’s death in 2004, according to the indictment.
“The death of the young man was a terrible tragedy,” Daley, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The pain which his family has felt over those years — anyone who has lost a child knows that. It’s irreplaceable pain.”
Most reporting about the indictment focuses on the possibility that there was some kind of cover-up by the police and prosecutors due to Vanecko being former Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew. Hopefully, that will be sorted out at the trial.
What is clear is that it should never have happened in the first place. Click here to read more.
