City Council approves $29 million in settlements for wrongful convictions tied to disgraced former CPD Det. Reynaldo Guevara

Chicago taxpayers are now on the hook for $29.2 million in settlements over wrongful conviction lawsuits connected to a disgraced former police detective.

The City Council gave final approval on Wednesday to recommendations from city attorneys to settle four separate lawsuits accusing former Det. Reynaldo Guevara of framing people for murder.

The largest settlement, for $16.6 million, would go to Demetrius Johnson, who was framed for the murder of Edwin Fred in 1991 in Wicker Park, when Johnson was just 15 years old.

Johnson spent 13 years in prison. His attorneys said he was convicted solely on the testimony of three witnesses who said they saw him shoot Fred, while other witnesses testified Johnson was actually with them at the time, watching the Chicago Bulls win their first NBA championship.

The witnesses who testified against Johnson later said they identified him as the shooter only after Guevara showed them a picture of Johnson and told them he was the killer. Johnson's lawsuit also claims Guevara withheld evidence that another witness had identified a different person as the shooter during a lineup the day after the shooting.

The next largest settlement involving Guevara is a $6.95 million payment to Angel Diaz, who spent 15 years in prison for the 1995 murder of Yolanda Leal. His attorneys have said the only evidence against him was the testimony of Leal's boyfriend, who testified at trial that he identified Diaz as the gunman only after Guevara pressured him into making false statements to a grand jury.

Guevara denied coercing that witness's testimony during the trial, and a judge later convicted Diaz and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Diaz was released on parole after serving half that time before prosecutors agreed to throw out his conviction in 2023.

A third settlement, for $4.85 million, would go to Ariel Gomez, who spent 20 years in prison for the 1997 murder of Concepcion Diaz before he was exonerated. Gomez was 17 years old when he was arrested, and his attorneys have said his conviction was based on a coerced confession after he "was subjected to horrendous physical brutality and psychologically abuse."

Gomez's lawsuit also claims Guevara suppressed evidence of lineups in which witnesses could not identify him as the killer, and covered up evidence that other witnesses had identified someone else as the shooter.

Prosecutors agreed to vacate Gomez's conviction in 2018.

The final settlement approved by the council on Wednesday was an $800,000 payment to William Negron, who spent 23 years in prison for the 1994 murders of Amy Merkes and Jorge Rodriguez before he was exonerated.

Negron has accused Guevara of falsely him and a co-defendant the shooters, and pressuring two witnesses to pick them out of a lineup. An appeals court threw out those convictions in 2013, and ordered new hearings in the case before the charges were dropped in 2017. Negron remained in prison on a separate unrelated murder conviction.

Guevara is accused of coercing false confessions and withholding evidence against dozens of murder suspects.

City Council Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell, whose committee recommended the settlements last week, said these four cases were just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to settling lawsuits tied to Guevara. She hopes the city can reach a similar resolution to how it handled scores of misconduct lawsuits tied to another disgraced officer, former CPD Sgt. Ronald Watts.

Last September, the City Council approved a $90 million payout to settle nearly 200 lawsuits accusing Watts of framing innocent people of drug charges. City attorneys have said taking those lawsuits to trial would have cost the city up to $500 million to resolve if they were not settled.

The city has already settled several other lawsuits involving Guevara, but faces dozens more.

"I can't predict how these other 37 cases are going to turn out, but they will probably have to be settled. I'm hoping that we can do some sort of global settlement like we did with the Watts cases, but that remains to be seen, and that's a call from our Corporation Counsel," Dowell said.

Guevara has never been charged with a crime and was never disciplined by the Chicago Police Department before he retired in 2005, allowing him to continue drawing a city pension. The CBS News Chicago investigators for years dug into the accusations of Guevara coercing false confessions as far back as the 1980s.

Guevara has repeatedly refused to testify in cases where he was accused of beating suspects into false confessions. In one lawsuit involving Guevara, he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to 200 questions.