City Council panel to vote on $29.2 million in settlements for wrongful convictions tied to former CPD Det. Reynaldo Guevara

Chicago aldermen this week will consider $29.2 million in settlements in wrongful convictions linked to disgraced former CPD Det. Reynaldo Guevara.

City lawyers have recommended settlements in four lawsuits accusing Guevara and other officers of framing people for murder, and the City Council Finance Committee will vote on those recommendations on Wednesday.

Guevara has been linked to dozens of overturned convictions, accused of repeatedly framing suspects who were later exonerated.

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.  

The largest proposed settlement under consideration this week is a $16.6 million payment to Demetrius Johnson, who spent 13 years in prison for the 1991 murder of Edwin Fred.

Johnson's lawyers have said he was only 15 years old when he was arrested, and was convicted based solely on the testimony of three witnesses who said they saw him shoot Fred.

However, other witnesses testified Johnson was with them at the time of the shooting, 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.

Cook County prosecutors agreed to vacate Johnson's conviction in 2019, and two years later he was awarded a certificate of innocence, according to court records.

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.

According to his lawyers, the only evidence against Diaz 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.

Diaz was sentenced to 30 years in prison for Leal's murder and was released on parole after serving half that time before prosecutors agreed to vacate his convictions 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 involving Guevara to be considered this week is 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 and his co-defendant, Roberto Almodovar Jr., accused Guevara of falsely identifying them as the shooters, and pressuring two witnesses to pick them out of a lineup. Those witnesses said Guevara showed them photos of Almodovar and Negron before the lineup, and claimed they were the gunmen.

An appeals court threw out Almodovar's and Negron's convictions in 2013, and ordered new hearings in the case before the charges were dropped in 2017. Almodovar was released from custody in 2017, but Negron remained in prison on a separate unrelated murder conviction.

Almodovar was awarded a $17 million settlement for his wrongful conviction in the case last year.

If the Finance Committee approves all four settlements on Wednesday, a final vote by the full City Council could be held on Feb. 18.