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LOCAL News :: Crime & Police
BREAKING: Federal Jury Awards Victim Largest-Ever Amount in Chicago Cop Frame-up
Author
- Andy Thayer
Date Created
- 22 Jun 2009
Date Edited
- 22 Jun 2009 02:36:22 PM
Rating
- Current rating: 12
License
This work is in the public domain.
$21+ Million: Largest-Ever Verdict Award For Wrongful Conviction in Chicago History
Monday, June 22 – A Federal jury late Friday and today awarded the largest-ever compensation for a wrongful conviction in Chicago history – $21+ million – $21 million in compensatory damages awarded Friday night and $15,000 in punitive damages awarded this afternoon.
The jury found that Chicago Detective Reynaldo Guevara framed former Humboldt Park resident Juan Johnson for the 1989 murder of Ricardo Fernandez, causing Johnson to be arrested at age 19 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Contrived identifications of Johnson played a key role in his conviction, and the exposure of this invented "evidence" many years later finally led to his release.
As the present suit against the Chicago Police noted, "Defendant Guevara has a history of fabricated false identifications and then suppressing evidence of such misconduct. Plaintiff has now learned of at least 12 Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards complaints against Defendant, with several suspensions against Defendant Guevara. There have also been repeated specific complaints in other cases and to the media of Detective Guevara fabricating identifications and concealing the wrongfully tainted identification procedures."
Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions is currently investigating more than 40 other alleged frame-ups by Detective Guevara and his colleagues. Despite voluminous evidence of his frame-ups and perjury, the Cook County States Attorneys Office has thus far declined to criminally prosecute Detective Guevara.
Johnson ended up serving 11-1/2 years, much of it in maximum security prison, before the Appellate court reversed the denial of his post-conviction petition, and a jury acquitted him in a 2004 retrial. Due to the police misconduct, Johnson spent his entire young adulthood behind bars, lost his wife, and missed the childhood of his daughter.
Johnson was represented in the civil suit by Jon Loevy, Elizabeth Mazur and Daniel Twetten of Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law; Thomas Gardiner of Gardiner, Koch, Weisberg & Wrona; and Attorney Daniel J. Stohr. Mr. Stohr has represented Mr. Johnson through both the criminal and civil proceedings for over 19 years. Other organizations that played critical roles in helping bring justice for Mr. Johnson include the Center on Wrongful Convictions of the Northwestern University School of Law and a community group of friends and relatives of the wrongfully convicted, Comité Exigimos Justicia (We Demand Justice Committee).
# # #
The jury found that Chicago Detective Reynaldo Guevara framed former Humboldt Park resident Juan Johnson for the 1989 murder of Ricardo Fernandez, causing Johnson to be arrested at age 19 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Contrived identifications of Johnson played a key role in his conviction, and the exposure of this invented "evidence" many years later finally led to his release.
As the present suit against the Chicago Police noted, "Defendant Guevara has a history of fabricated false identifications and then suppressing evidence of such misconduct. Plaintiff has now learned of at least 12 Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards complaints against Defendant, with several suspensions against Defendant Guevara. There have also been repeated specific complaints in other cases and to the media of Detective Guevara fabricating identifications and concealing the wrongfully tainted identification procedures."
Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions is currently investigating more than 40 other alleged frame-ups by Detective Guevara and his colleagues. Despite voluminous evidence of his frame-ups and perjury, the Cook County States Attorneys Office has thus far declined to criminally prosecute Detective Guevara.
Johnson ended up serving 11-1/2 years, much of it in maximum security prison, before the Appellate court reversed the denial of his post-conviction petition, and a jury acquitted him in a 2004 retrial. Due to the police misconduct, Johnson spent his entire young adulthood behind bars, lost his wife, and missed the childhood of his daughter.
Johnson was represented in the civil suit by Jon Loevy, Elizabeth Mazur and Daniel Twetten of Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law; Thomas Gardiner of Gardiner, Koch, Weisberg & Wrona; and Attorney Daniel J. Stohr. Mr. Stohr has represented Mr. Johnson through both the criminal and civil proceedings for over 19 years. Other organizations that played critical roles in helping bring justice for Mr. Johnson include the Center on Wrongful Convictions of the Northwestern University School of Law and a community group of friends and relatives of the wrongfully convicted, Comité Exigimos Justicia (We Demand Justice Committee).
# # #
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Comments
Re: BREAKING: Federal Jury Awards Victim Largest-Ever Amount in Chicago Cop Frame-up
24 Jun 2009
The AP, known by the network name "THEASS-7" has been terrorizing small operators who dare aggregate headlines and ledes of AP stories, although these are spit from the rss feeds of many AP subscribers. Standing case law does not consider this to be copyright violation - but THE ASS has begun to use legal blackmail as a sales tool. Forgive my digression, the point being that THE ASS has consolidated it's power and now strides forth shamelessly as a political force. If your read their coverage of this instance it will be clear to you why Indymedia is necessary. And here is the network info of the entity you will want to keep out of your server logs (should you have such things) - because if they don't find their stories on your site, they are sure to find something they will make their own:
First comes the legal department of THEASS, in ascii, so I hope this works for you. If not, I'll repost elsewhere:
---------------------------------
OrgName: The Associated Press
OrgID: THEASS-7
Address: 450 West 33rd Street
City: New York
StateProv: NY
PostalCode: 10001
Country: US
NetRange: 165.1.0.0 - 165.1.255.255
CIDR: 165.1.0.0/16
NetName: AP
NetHandle: NET-165-1-0-0-1
Parent: NET-165-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: BELL.AP.ORG
NameServer: CBRU.BR.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET
NameServer: CMTU.MT.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1993-03-22
Updated: 2009-05-05
OrgTechHandle: RP735-ARIN
OrgTechName: Penna, Richard
OrgTechPhone: +1-609-860-6955
OrgTechEmail: richard_penna (at) ap.org
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-06-23 20:00
---------------------------------
And here's the pimp of THEASS who approached me with their now familiar ham-handed tactics:
---------------------------------
CustName: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Address: 1100 13TH ST NW 6th Rack Room 35
City: WASHINGTON
StateProv: DC
PostalCode: 20005-4051
Country: US
RegDate: 2007-12-07
Updated: 2007-12-07
NetRange: 65.207.77.128 - 65.207.77.159
CIDR: 65.207.77.128/27
NetName: UU-65-207-77-128-D7
NetHandle: NET-65-207-77-128-1
Parent: NET-65-192-0-0-1
NetType: Reassigned
Comment: Addresses within this block are non-portable.
RegDate: 2007-12-07
Updated: 2007-12-07
RTechHandle: OA12-ARIN
RTechName: UUnet Technologies, Inc., Technologies
RTechPhone: +1-800-900-0241
RTechEmail: help4u (at) verizonbusiness.com
OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE3-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-800-900-0241
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse-mail (at) verizonbusiness.com
OrgNOCHandle: OA12-ARIN
OrgNOCName: UUnet Technologies, Inc., Technologies
OrgNOCPhone: +1-800-900-0241
OrgNOCEmail: help4u (at) verizonbusiness.com
OrgTechHandle: SWIPP-ARIN
OrgTechName: swipper
OrgTechPhone: +1-800-900-0241
OrgTechEmail: swipper (at) verizonbusiness.com
OrgTechHandle: JHU140-ARIN
OrgTechName: Huffines, Jody
OrgTechPhone: +1-703-886-6093
OrgTechEmail: Jody.Huffines (at) verizonbusiness.com
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-06-23 20:00
---------------------------------
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