BREAKING NEWS ― FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 22, 2009
For Information: Jon Loevy, Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law, 312.243.5900
Andy Thayer, assistant to Jon Loevy, 773.209.1187 (cell)
Federal Jury Awards Victim
$21+ Million For
Chicago Cop Frame-up
Largest-Ever Verdict Award For Wrongful Conviction in Chicago History
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MAN & HIS ATTORNEYS TODAY
AT 2:30 PM, OFFICE OF LOEVY & LOEVY ATTORNEYS AT LAW, 312 N. MAY STREET, CHICAGO
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 exposur e of this invented "evidence" many y ears 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 11½ 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 At torney 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).
For Information: Jon Loevy, Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law, 312.243.5900
Andy Thayer, assistant to Jon Loevy, 773.209.1187 (cell)
Federal Jury Awards Victim
$21+ Million For
Chicago Cop Frame-up
Largest-Ever Verdict Award For Wrongful Conviction in Chicago History
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MAN & HIS ATTORNEYS TODAY
AT 2:30 PM, OFFICE OF LOEVY & LOEVY ATTORNEYS AT LAW, 312 N. MAY STREET, CHICAGO
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 exposur e of this invented "evidence" many y ears 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 11½ 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 At torney 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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