Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The late Jon Burge and his gang of fellow Chicago Police Department officers were accused of torturing more than 100 suspects - mostly black men - between 1972 and 1991. (The so-called Burge era). It would be nice if this ugly black mark on American criminal justice was a mere blip, a destructive phenomena, that did its damage over the two decades and then faded into history. Sadly, that was not to be the case. As the Exoneration Project points out, Burge was to be followed by another era - also entered in Chicago - in which a corrupt Chicago police officer named Ronald Watts who framed almost 100 innocent victims on drug charges. (The Watts era); As the Exoneration Project points out: "The dismissals bring the total to 110 Watts-related convictions tossed in what has become one of largest police scandals in Chicago history. Mayor Lori Lightfoot herself has called Watts “the Burge of our time,” referring to Chicago Commander Jon Burge who for years physically tortured African American men into false confessions. Thus one black mark on American criminal justice was replaced by another. Watts may not have tortured people for their confessions. (It can get rather messy); All he, and his gang, had to do was plant the drugs, and lie through his teeth on the witness stand - probably quite confident, given his force's dismal record for holding officers accountable for their misconduct, that he would not face serious punishment if ever caught. Which, of course, turned out to be the case.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "All told, after this morning’s dismissals, 87 Black men and women have had Watts-related convictions dismissed, almost always long after they finished their sentences. Together, they were sentenced to serve over 274 years in prison. For his 2013 federal conviction, Watts served less than 2 years in prison and one subordinate, Mohammed, served 18 months. No other officer has faced charges."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Yet well over three years after the mass exonerations started, the City’s latest police oversight board—the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)—also has done nothing, leaving the roughly dozen Watts subordinates tied to the dismissed cases as active members of CPD. This includes Alvin Jones—who has since been promoted to Sergeant and who Newman and scores of other victims directly link to Watts’ misconduct."
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STORY: Breaking: "7th mass exoneration of victims of corrupt CPD Sgt. Ronald Watts," published by The exoneration Project on February 19, 2021.
SUB-HEADING: "Seven men, two women, have drug convictions dismissed."
GIST: "At age 14, Lloyd Newman was one of the protagonists and producers of the Peabody award-winning National Public Radio docuseries Ghetto Life 101—which chronicled the daily lives of two children growing up in the Ida B. Wells (“Wells”) housing projects. By 1996, Newman, LeAlan Jones, and six-time Peabody Award winner and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow David Isay published a best-selling book—Our America–telling the boys’ stories.
A decade later in 2006, Newman was framed by disgraced former Chicago police Sergeant Ronald Watts and members of his team. At a brief court hearing this morning, Newman’s conviction was one of nine vacated—the latest in a series of mass exonerations caused by a review of Watts and his team’s misconduct as they patrolled the Wells and other housing projects during the mid-2000s.
The dismissals bring the total to 110 Watts-related convictions tossed in what has become one of largest police scandals in Chicago history. Mayor Lori Lightfoot herself has called Watts “the Burge of our time,” referring to Chicago Commander Jon Burge who for years physically tortured African American men into false confessions.
In a sworn affidavit, Newman recalls the September 9, 2006 day when he was leaving his sister’s apartment in Wells when Watts and one of his team members, Alvin Jones, stopped and searched him. Newman was neither doing anything illegal nor did he have drugs. Undeterred, Watts arrested him anyway, producing drugs from a door frame and falsely attributing them to Newman. As Newman protested and explained that he was the subject of the NPR series and college-bound, Watts suggested to his partner Jones that perhaps they shouldn’t frame Newman. Jones, however, remained unmoved, and continued processing the false police report. Newman was jailed, convicted, and sentenced to 24 months’ probation. It was and remains his only felony conviction, and now it is gone.
In 2012, Watts and Officer Kallatt Mohammed were federally indicted and later pled guilty to taking a bribe from an informant. Law enforcement documents have since revealed that Watts and members of his team were running a “protection racket” for more than a decade, planting evidence and fabricating charges against Black Southside housing project residents while facilitating their own drug and gun trade.
The Illinois Appellate Court has referred to Watts and his team as “corrupt police officers,” perjurers, and “criminals,” chastising the City’s police disciplinary oversight bodies for their utter failure to do anything “to slow down the criminal” police officers during a decade of corruption.
Yet well over three years after the mass exonerations started, the City’s latest police oversight board—the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)—also has done nothing, leaving the roughly dozen Watts subordinates tied to the dismissed cases as active members of CPD. This includes Alvin Jones—who has since been promoted to Sergeant and who Newman and scores of other victims directly link to Watts’ misconduct.
In addition to Newman, Marc Giles, Clifford Roberts, Bryant Patrick, Jermaine Morris, Tyrone Herron, Eveless Harris, Trinere Johnson, and Catrina Bonner had drug convictions tossed. All allege similar misconduct from Watts and his team. Johnson and Bonner are represented by Kenneth M. Flaxman, P.C.; the remaining men are represented by the Exoneration Project.
All told, after this morning’s dismissals, 87 Black men and women have had Watts-related convictions dismissed, almost always long after they finished their sentences. Together, they were sentenced to serve over 274 years in prison.
For his 2013 federal conviction, Watts served less than 2 years in prison and one subordinate, Mohammed, served 18 months. No other officer has faced charges.
Attorneys representing the Watts victims allege that several dozen more Black men and women have made credible claims in sworn statements that they were also framed by Watts and his team."
The entire story can be read at;----------------------------------------------------------------
Watts searched Newman. Although he found nothing illegal, Watts handcuffed Newman and the two officers marched him up to the third floor. There, Watts reached up above the frame of the hallway door and pulled down a plastic bag containing 20 individual baggies of crack cocaine.
“Watts then turned to me and said that I was going to jail,” Newman later said. “I tried to tell him that the drugs weren’t mine, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”
Newman was taken to a police station where he told Watts he was innocent and pleaded to be released. Newman explained that he was going to college and was not involved in drugs. Newman also told Watts that as a young teenager, he was the subject of the award-winning National Public Radio documentaries “Ghetto Life 101” and “Remorse: 14 Stories.” Newman explained that he was the co-author of the book: “Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago,” which chronicled life at the Ida B. Wells development.
“Watts was very interested in this and then he told Jones that they would let me go and get someone else for the arrest,” Newman later said. “However, Jones shot that idea down. I was charged with manufacturing, delivery, and possession of cocaine.”
Newman wanted to fight the charge, but his attorney recommended that he plead guilty. On May 16, 2007, Newman pled guilty to possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
In 2012, Watts and fellow officer Kallatt Mohammed were caught on tape stealing money from a man they believed was a drug courier, but who was in fact working as a confidential FBI informant. In 2013, Watts and Mohammed pled guilty in U.S. District Court to taking money from the informant. Mohammed was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Watts was sentenced to 22 months in prison.
Federal prosecutors said Watts “used his badge and his position as a sergeant with the Chicago Police Department to shield his own criminal activity from law enforcement scrutiny. He recruited another CPD officer into his crimes, stealing drug money and extorting protection payments from the drug dealers who terrorized the community that he [Watts] had sworn to protect.”
In 2006, Ben Baker was convicted twice—once alone and a second time with his wife, Clarissa Glenn, on charges of narcotics possession based on false testimony from Watts. In 2015, Joshua Tepfer, an attorney at the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School, filed a petition to vacate Baker’s first conviction, citing the corruption of Watts and his unit. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) agreed in January 2016 that Baker’s first conviction should be vacated, and the petition was granted. Later in 2016, a petition filed on behalf of Baker and Glenn also was granted.
In December 2016, Tepfer and attorney Joel Flaxman filed a motion for a new trial on behalf of Lionel White Sr., another defendant who claimed he had been falsely convicted based on the corruption of Watts and his team. “The full known scope of the corrupt, more-than-decade-long criminal enterprise of Sergeant Watts…shows that Sergeant Watts led a tactical team of Chicago police officers that engaged in systematic extortion, bribery, and other related crimes…from as far back as the late 1990s through 2012,” the motion said.
The CIU agreed that White’s conviction should be vacated and dismissed the charge.
In November 2017, following a re-investigation of numerous other cases involving Watts, the CIU dismissed 17 convictions involving 15 more defendants, including the conviction of Lionel White Jr., the son of Lionel White Sr.
By January 2021, more than 80 convictions tainted by Watts and members of his unit had been dismissed. On February 19, 2021, following an investigation by the CIU, the convictions of Newman and eight others were vacated and dismissed.
Newman subsequently filed a petition for a certificate of innocence that would allow him to seek compensation from the state of Illinois."
