Request for sanctions against Ronald Johnson's mother dropped amid controversial comments

CHICAGO (WLS) -- City lawyers are taking a mother to court, accusing her of threatening the Chicago police officer who killed her son.

It is a highly unusual move by city lawyers. In a court filing, they say it's necessary for a judge to step in and tell the mother of a man killed by a police officer to tone down the rhetoric.

One day after prosecutors decided not to charge the officer who shot and killed Ronald Johnson, his mom said this about the officer in a YouTube video:

"I love my kid just as well as he loves his 15-year-old and his 17-year old. What goes around comes around. And he can take it how he wanna take it. If he wanna take it as a threat, it was a threat," Dorothy Holmes said.

But that's not all. A month earlier, Dorothy Holmes surreptitiously took a photo of Officer George Hernandez during a deposition. She tweeted it, writing: "George Hernandez the CPD terrorist who murdered Ronnieman. Justice will be served one day."

Anti-police protesters quickly branded the photo with the word "murderer." It's been used in demonstrations since.

City lawyers have now gone to court, asking a judge to sanction Ronald Johnson's mother.

In a motion, they claim her "most recent statements, juxtaposed with the current political climate, are extremely serious as they endanger the lives of two minor children... It's akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater."

"She was emotional. She is not a threat to anybody. She just wants justice for her son and to go after a grieving mother like that is just ridiculous," said Michael Oppenheimer, Holmes' attorney.

The judge overseeing Holmes' civil suit against the city and the officer who fired the fatal shot has summoned all parties to a courthouse meeting on January 6.