The money that’s been spent to defend these lawsuits is staggering: $750 million by Chicago, according to one analysis.

By Flint Taylor

This oped was in the Chicago Sun-Times on Sept 27, 2024.

In the last few months, two separate Chicago juries returned record verdicts in two wrongful conviction cases. On Sept. 9, a federal court jury returned a $50 million verdict in favor of Marcel Brown, a Black man who was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly 10 years in prison on the basis of a coerced confession and other fabricated evidence. The city, whose settlement offer was reportedly $3 million, was represented by private lawyers who, along with several other defense firms, have collected $150 million of “pinstripe patronage” for decades from the city for representing police officials in police torture and other wrongful conviction cases

in August, another federal jury returned a $22.5 million verdict in favor of the estate of William Amor, who was wrongfully convicted of an arson-murder and spent more than 20 years in prison on the basis of a false confession that was coerced from him by Naperville detectives. Naperville subsequently settled the case for $25.5 million. And on Sept. 18, City Council approved a $10.6 million settlement in favor of Anthony Jakes, who was tortured by detectives working under the notorious Jon Burge and spent 20 years in prison. In these two cases, the defendants were represented by a longtime “pinstripe” lawyer who had defended Burge himself in several earlier torture lawsuits. In the Jakes case, Chicago paid an additional $2.25 million to its pinstripe team.

These awards highlight long-standing, systemic problems that have continued under Mayor Brandon Johnson and his corporation counsel. Johnson campaigned on a platform that condemned police torture and wrongful convictions, and promised fair compensation to its victims. Civil rights lawyers proposed a new approach that would rid the city of the “pinstripe” lawyers while creating a mediation process that would be employed early in the litigation and apply fair monetary ranges for wrongful conviction and other police violence cases.

To date, 18 months after Johnson took office, the mayor and his top lawyer have refused to implement this or any other reform. Instead, they have continued “business as usual,” with catastrophic results.

In the Burge cases, the same pinstripe lawyers continue to implement their “bill and obstruct” game plan, denying in court what mayors, including Johnson, and numerous politicians have publicly admitted: that the Chicago Police Department had long-standing practices of torture leading to wrongful convictions, fostered by a pervasive code of silence.

A ‘staggering’ amount of money
Redoubling their previous efforts, these lawyers recently moved to recuse the only Black federal judge who, in the past 35 years, has been assigned to sit on the score of torture cases that have wended their way through the local federal courts. After the judge rejected the motion, the corporation counsel personally authorized an appeal that was summarily rejected by the higher court.

In the Jackie Wilson case (I am one of Wilson’s lawyers) a criminal court judge had ruled that Jackie and his brother Andrew had been brutally tortured by Burge and several of his detective crew, including Thomas McKenna. During the criminal proceedings that resulted in the judge’s determination that Jackie was innocent, McKenna and Burge wisely took the Fifth Amendment. But McKenna, now represented by another firm of “pinstripe lawyers,” has flaunted the judicial finding that he tortured Wilson, and denied under oath in Wilson’s civil case that he did so.

The money that Chicago, Cook County, and the state have expended over the past two decades in Burge torture and wrongful conviction cases is staggering. According to public records, Chicago has paid $49.25 million to outside lawyers; $118.75 million to survivors of police torture; and another $50.5 million in pensions to Burge (now deceased) and his confederates, for a total of $218.5 million. Additionally, the county has paid $40 million, and the state $10 million, for a grand total of $268.5 million.

The total payouts made by Chicago alone in all wrongful conviction cases, according to a study recently released by the Truth Hope and Justice Initiative, is three-quarters of a billion dollars: $600 million to the victims and $150 million going to the consortium of pinstripe lawyers.

The city, the mayor and the corporation counsel are now at a very public financial crossroads. Scores of pending torture and other wrongful conviction cases remain to be resolved. A continued “head in the sand” approach could cost the taxpayers many times more than if they — the mayor and corporation counsel — wake up, smell the coffee, and institute reforms that will result in a fair, speedy, and equitable resolution of these cases, for both the victims and the taxpayers.

On August 6, 2024, People’s Law Office lawyers Flint Taylor and Ben Elson joined with Raise the Floor and Workers Law Office lawyers to file a 17 count complaint on behalf of four Venezuelan and one Columbian day laborers (journaleros), and the Latino Union alleging that off duty Chicago Police officers, “moonlighting” as security officers at the Western and 47th Street Home Depot, with racial animus and using their power as CPD officers, together with Home Depot officers, brutalized the workers and detained, arrested and prosecuted them on bogus charges. The suit also centers long-standing CPD policies, practices and customs, specifically as they encourage this unconstitutional use of force and unlawful arrests, by failing to properly supervise, control and discipline officers who use their police powers while they are working secondary employment.

Read more about this case on City Bureau

Today the Cook County Board unanimously approved a record-setting $17 million dollar settlement to compensate Jackie Wilson for their prosecutors’ role in his torture and 36 years of wrongful incarceration. This is a capstone to the People’s Law Office (PLO) for more than 35 years of struggle against Chicago police torture and cover-up. Unfortunately, the Johnson administration continues to shirk its responsibility for this horrendous miscarraige of justice by continuing to fund private lawyers, who have already collected tens of millions of dollars, to deny the City of Chicago’s paramount responsibility for Jon Burge and the City’s pattern and practice of torture and cover-up in Jackie and numerous other police torture cases. The PLO and Loevy and Loevy have issued the following statement:

JOINT STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF JACKIE WILSON BY HIS LAWYERS

March 13, 2024

“As the Cook County courts recognized when granting a certificate of innocence, Jackie Wilson was wrongfully convicted of a senseless and horrific crime. During his 36 years of wrongful imprisonment, Jackie suffered unimaginable pain and trauma that few people could ever truly understand. With this settlement, Cook County acknowledges and limits the substantial risk that this litigation poses to taxpayers while also allowing Jackie to move forward with what remains of his life.

Now it is time for the City of Chicago to likewise appreciate the serious exposure it faces in this case and act consistently with the promises of Mayor Johnson and his predecessors who have long acknowledged the serious harm that Jon Burge and other Chicago police torturers have inflicted upon Jackie, other torture survivors, and Chicago’s communities of color.”

THE PEOPLE’S LAW OFFICE and LOEVY AND LOEVY

Ronnie Carrasquillo, a longtime client of PLO, was recently released after serving 47 years in prison. 65 year old Ronnie emerged from prison having been an inspirational mentor and peace-maker to so many both inside and outside the prison walls since his incarceration when he was 18 years of age. Over the years he had garnered wide-spread support, from his family, religious and Puerto Rican communities, elected and appointed officials and even the former prosecutor in his underlying case. An instructor in the prison described Ronnie, his student, as sincere and honest with an excellent attitude, having helped turn many other people’s lives around. The courtroom was packed with his supporters when Judge Maldonado, having been ordered by the appellate court to conduct a new sentencing hearing, declared his time had been served and he was rehabilitated. All who know Ronnie are eager to see the positive contributions Ronnie will continue to make in his community.

In 1976, 18 year old Ronnie was living in Humboldt Park, a community saturated with racially based violence. His mother had died three years before and he and his brother were left largely to fend for themselves amidst the chaos of their lives. He himself had been shot and the victim of multiple crimes. One night after drinking at a party, a fight broke out between Puerto Rican and white gangs in the street below and as the party-goers streamed out, Ronnie was handed a gun and he fired it several times attempting to fire over the crowd to disperse the fight. Shots ended up high up in the first and second floors of an abandoned building but one shot struck an off duty police officer, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, who was in the midst of the crowd trying to break-up the melee, killing him. As the prosecutor attested Ronnie always took responsibility for firing the gun, was saddened and expressed his remorse from the beginning. Despite his lack of a criminal record, Judge Frank Wilson sentenced Ronnie to 200-600 years in prison.

Approximately 31 years ago PLO partner Michael Deutsch received a call from Ronnie Carrasquillo’s brother and later learned that Ronnie had been involved with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, a community organization that the office had long supported in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Thus began Michael’s and the PLO’s decades long commitment and support of Ronnie. Ronnie’s story was compelling as was the involvement of Judge Wilson who was implicated in a  judicial corruption scandal in which he was was accused of taking a bribe to acquit a mob hit man several months before giving the draconian sentence to 18-year-old Ronnie. Judge Wilson later killed himself as an indictment of him appeared imminent.   

Michael enlisted his PLO partner John Stainthorp who was also dealing with an appeal of a man wrongly sentenced by a corrupt judge. Thus began Michael’s lead advocacy through multiple criminal appeals, successive post conviction hearings, chancery proceedings and multiple parole hearings. Over the course of the next 30 years Michael zealously represented Ronnie. Michael repeatedly represented Ronnie in parole hearings only to see the hearing room packed with police officers, intimidating parole board members and leading a former chair of the board to conclude that Ronnie would never be granted parole. At times when he deemed it advantageous to Ronnie’s case he recruited, encouraged and supported other attorneys to take up aspects of the fight to free Ronnie. Ronnie’s case became one of the examples of a deteriorating parole board that now is in disarray and stacked against those who believe in rehabilitation and second chances.

After a successful appeal, that instead of concluding the outrageous sentence received was the result of a corrupt judge, found that the requisite cause and prejudice was established and granted leave to file a successive post conviction petition on behalf of Ronnie. The appellate court found prejudice in that Ronnie, without any prior criminal record who was 18 at the time of the  crime, had already served a de facto life sentence and despite his excellent prison record and strong family and community support had been turned down for parole 30 times in almost as many years. Former PLO associate Shubra Ohri and Michael tried a postconviction hearing in front of Judge Maldonado and then successfully appealed the judge’s denial of relief. PLO partner Brad Thomson, a law student at the time, conducted legal investigation into aspects of the case and testified at the hearing.

In 2020, Michael procured a forensic evaluation from  a forensic clinical psychologist who provided an expert report regarding the still developing brain of an 18 year old emerging adult, concluding that many of the factors recognized by the US Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama were applicable to Ronnie and the likelihood of his rehabilitation based on his stellar prison record. At the same time, Michael enlisted PLO partner Jani Hoft along with Attorney Melinda Power to assist with a concurrent attack in Chancery Court of Cook County of the unconstitutionality of Ronnie’s repeated mistreatment by the parole board. Michael, Jani and Melinda also conducted another postconviction hearing in front of Judge Maldonado only to have the judge again deny Ronnie any relief concluding that despite the evidence to the contrary that Ronnie had the continued opportunity for parole.            

In the meantime, Illinois Prison Project attorney Jennifer Soble had taken up efforts to secure parole as well as clemency for Ronnie, tirelessly fighting on his behalf. Former PLO partner Chick Hoffman, semi-retired senior attorney with the Office of the State Appellate Defender took up Ronnie’s appeal, successively arguing the case and ultimately resulting in a reversal of Judge Maldonado’s denial of Ronnie’s postconviction petition, finally vacating the 200-600 year sentence and ordering a new sentencing hearing be conducted.  Ronnie’s case again came before Judge Maldonado and despite vicious and unfounded vitriol against Ronnie on social media by the Chicago Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Office of the State’s Attorney raised no objection and Judge Maldonado sentenced Ronnie to time served and released him to his supportive family and community. Michael, Chick and Jennifer Soble were there to  finally see Ronnie set free. All of us at the PLO celebrate this long awaited result and wish Ronnie and his family the very best for the future.

Today, lawyers from the People’s Law Office in Chicago filed a five-count civil rights complaint on behalf of Danny Wilber, a Black and Indigenous man who was wrongfully convicted of a murder that he did not commit. The complaint names nine individual former Milwaukee police officers and the City of Milwaukee, alleging that the officers, individually and together, framed Mr. Wilber by manufacturing evidence that falsely implicated him in the crime, by suppressing evidence that exonerated him, and by ignoring evidence that pointed to alternative suspects, in violation of Mr. Wilber’s constitutional rights. These officers framed Mr. Wilber, the complaint further alleges, despite the fact that the medical and physical evidence established that it was impossible for him to have committed the crime.

The complaint also alleges that the City of Milwaukee, through its Police Department, had in place certain policies, practices and customs that also caused the violation of his constitutional rights. These policies and practices include “pursuing wrongful convictions through reliance on materially flawed investigations and coerced and fabricated evidence including witness statements; failing to produce to criminal defendants exculpatory material including handwritten notes of interviews and other investigative activities; failing to properly investigate or seeking to discredit alternative suspects; failing to adequately train, supervise, monitor, and discipline Milwaukee police officers; and maintaining the police code of silence.”

Mr. Wilber spent almost 18 years locked up in prison, until his case was dismissed in 2022, and as a result he suffered extreme and long-lasting damage. As the complaint alleges, he “sustained injuries and damages, including loss of his freedom for almost eighteen years, loss of his youth, personal injuries, pain and suffering, severe mental anguish, emotional distress, inadequate medical care, humiliation, indignities, embarrassment, degradation, permanent loss of natural psychological development, and restrictions on all forms of personal freedom including but not limited to diet, sleep, personal contact, educational opportunity, vocational opportunity, athletic opportunity, personal fulfillment, sexual activity, family relations, reading, television, movies, travel, enjoyment, and freedom of speech and expression.”

According to Mr. Wilber: I firmly believe that what the MPD did to me was deliberate, systematic, and meticulously orchestrated to frame and wrongfully convict an obviously innocent man. I hope that this case will bring some measure of law enforcement accountability when it comes to the MPD’s bringing of false charges and obtaining wrongful convictions of Black and Indigenous people in Milwaukee.

Wilber attorneys Flint Taylor and Ben Elson of the People’s Law Office addressed the alleged policy and practices of the City and its Police Department, calling them “longstanding and flagrantly unconstitutional” and “urging the Mayor, the City Council and the MPD to remedy this systemic police misconduct that caused Mr. Wilber such needless pain and suffering.”