PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Grace said, but they wanted protection so they couldn’t be targeted in future cases given what he calls the “hysteria” of the wrongful conviction movement."
Timothy Grace: Lawyer for two of the officers;
---------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Charles Smith Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially juveniles) are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Dozens Say This Cop Framed Them. One Just Went Free After 27 Years," by reporter Melissa Segura, published by Buzzfeed on November 15, 2017.
SUB-HEADING: "Detective Reynaldo Guevara has been accused of framing more
than 50 people for murder. He and other officers said they would not
testify in the retrial of one of those defendants. Prosecutors said they
had no choice but to drop the case."
GIST: "A Chicago man who served 27 years for a double murder walked free
today, after the police officers he says framed him refused to testify
at his retrial. Jose Maysonet, 49, has repeatedly claimed that
Chicago detective Reynaldo Guevara beat him into confessing to the 1990
murders of two brothers. Maysonet was granted a retrial last year on the
grounds that he had been denied effective counsel. Hours before a
preliminary hearing in that retrial, attorneys for Guevara and four
other officers in Maysonet’s case announced that they would invoke their
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Without the officers’
testimony, prosecutors determined they couldn’t meet their burden of
proof. The state’s attorney’s office “continues to maintain that
he is guilty and that Mr. Maysonet’s statements are not the product of
police misconduct,” Eric Sussman, first assistant state’s attorney, told
the court. Sussman said he dropped the charges with “deep regret and
sadness for the victims in this case.” An attorney for two of the
officers, Fernando Montilla and Roland Paulnitsky, said they were
angered over the prosecution’s decision. The attorney, Timothy Grace,
told BuzzFeed News that his clients decided that they would invoke their
Fifth Amendment rights after Kim Foxx of the Cook County State’s
Attorney’s Office declined to grant the officers immunity in exchange
for their testimony. His clients “didn’t do anything improper,”
Grace said, but they wanted protection so they couldn’t be targeted in
future cases given what he calls the “hysteria” of the wrongful
conviction movement. Maysonet’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, offered a different explanation:
“They feared prosecution for what they did, which was frame my client,”
aided by the complicity and the silence of other officers. The officers’
refusal to testify, she added, is evidence that the division where
Guevara and other officers worked “is rotten to the core.” The officers’ request for immunity and
refusal to testify points to a rift between Foxx, who campaigned on a
reformist agenda, and police. Foxx has been criticized by both the
police officers’ union, for putting officers like Guevara on the stand,
and the families of Guevara’s accusers, who say her office isn’t doing
enough to ensure innocent men aren’t behind bars. While officers
and prosecutors bemoaned Maysonet’s release, his mother, Miriam LaJara,
along with other family members, sat in the front row of the courtroom,
sobbing with joy. His sister, Rosa, rocked back and forth repeating,
“Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.” Maysonet is the fifth man in
the last two years whose conviction has been tossed after allegations
of Guevara’s misconduct. At least 51 people accuse the retired detective
of actions from beating them into false confessions to tampering with
witnesses. In a pretrial hearing last month, Maysonet, an admitted
former drug dealer, said he paid Guevara at least $1,000 a week in
exchange for protection from arrest. Maysonet stopped paying the
detectives after a bitter dispute, Maysonet’s attorney told the court.
Three months later, she said, Maysonet was framed the double murder. “I’m still shocked,” Maysonet said as he was set free. The codefendant in Maysonet’s case, Alfredo Gonzalez, is also appealing his conviction."
