Chicago’s City Council is poised to approve the largest single payout for misconduct in the city’s history, all tied to disgraced former CPD detective Reynaldo Guevara.
The City Council’s finance committee Monday unanimously approved $260.8 million to 17 plaintiffs who were convicted of murder – but later had their convictions vacated due to purported false confessions.
Eruby Abrego was one of the 17 plaintiffs. He was freed from state prison in 2022 after serving 23 years for a murder he didn’t commit. He was exonerated after he revealed he was tortured into a false confession at Guevara’s direction.
Guevara was accused of generating numerous false confessions and framing people for murders in nearly 50 cases that have settled with the city or still have settlements pending.
The $260 million will be paid in four installments over the next two years. Council members say the settlement is fiscally responsible, because they believe the alternative of challenging the plaintiffs on a case-by-case could have proven to be far costlier.
“Nobody hates signing off on $260 million based on the fiscal mess that we have more than me,” said 34th ward Ald. Bill Conway. “But the fact of the matter is, we have a significant unknown liability here, and this takes a lot of it off the books.”
But are all of the plaintiffs actually innocent of their crimes? The details are murky. The city’s finance department reveals that 15 of the 17 received certificates of innocence to clear their name, but the Cook County State’s Attorney challenged three of those cases -meaning they had reason to doubt the innocence of the defendant. One of the plaintiffs in the settled cases has a certificate still pending, while the other did not apply.
“Certificates of innocence don’t guarantee that person did not commit those crimes,” said 15th ward Ald. Ray Lopez. “It just means that they are innocent of that process that put them in jail.”
Lopez said he believes the law firm representing these cases – Loevy and Loevy – is taking advantage of the city by lumping questionable cases with proven ones. The law department revealed the firm gets 40% of the payout. That amounts to $103 million from this settlement.
The actions in question occurred between 1987 and 1999. Guevara retired in 2005 and still receives his full city pension.
Monday’s action comes on top of a previous $200 million settlement paid out in more cases tied to Guevara, and the city’s law department says there are at least two more pending after this. The settlement now goes to the full City Council for approval, which is all but assured after today’s finance committee action.
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