(MCT) — CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday his attempt to erase a jury’s verdict “closes a chapter” on the police scandal sparked by the videotaped beating of a bartender, but lawyers in other misconduct cases say the mayor is joining a long list of city officials who have denied a “code of silence” in the Chicago Police Department protects rogue officers.

The mayor defended the city’s offer to pay the woman beaten by former Officer Anthony Abbate the $850,000 she was awarded by a federal jury Nov. 13. In exchange, she is supporting a motion to vacate the jury’s decision that the department has a practice of protecting its own.