CHICAGO (CBS) — CBS 2’s powerful story, “My Name is Anjanette Young,” has won first place in the Better Government Association’s 2021 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting.
The story also won the BGA’s Reader’s Choice Award at a virtual ceremony Tuesday.
Savini was honored along with producers Samah Assad and Michele Youngerman; and photographers Mike Klingele, DeAndra Taylor, Reed Nolan, Don Stanke, Alfredo Roman, Chris McKnight, Dave Kenebrew, Tim Viste, Lana Hinshaw-Klann, and Tony Diasio.
“The winning story was a solid example of how dogged investigative journalism can remedy wrongs,” the BGA wrote.
The wrong raid on Young’s home in February 2019 was first exposed by CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini. Young was handcuffed naked and terrified by officers on a botched raid who had the wrong home.
Young has since become the face of a troubling pattern of wrong raids uncovered as part of a years-long CBS 2 investigation. She is among dozens of people of color who Savini found were victims of wrong raids, after officers failed to do basic investigative work to check bad tips from confidential informants.
It was December 2020, CBS 2 aired the damning body camera video that revealed the moments officers wrongly raided Young’s home, pointed guns at her, and handcuffed her. Young had been undressing for bed when officers burst in.
While the botched raid happened before Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office, the video was unearthed while she was mayor. It wasn’t until the airing of the video more than a year later that Lightfoot promised to take steps to resolve the case.
The City’s top attorney, Mark Flessner, resigned amid public scrutiny days after the video aired. The video itself, along with the City’s legal attempts to stop CBS 2 from airing it, spurred months of backlash against city leaders.
In April, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability concluded its nearly 18-month investigation of raid of Young’s home, and said it produced nearly 100 allegations of misconduct against more than a dozen officers who took part in the raid.
Meanwhile, our investigations into wrong police raids have also led to new laws and search warrant policies.