City settles lawsuit with exonerated man, one of Englewood Four
Last edited Thu May 18, 2017, 08:57 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: Chicago Tribune
Steve Schmadeke
May 18, 5:30pm ET
It is the first lawsuit brought by one of the Englewood Four the other three being Michael Saunders, Vincent Thamesand Harold Richardson to be settled. The terms of the settlement in the Cook County Circuit Court case are confidential until approved by the city council.
Reached Thursday, a spokesman for the city's law department didn't comment. Swift's attorney, Locke Bowman, also declined comment. Lawsuits filed by the remaining three, each of whom is represented by a different attorney, are pending in federal court.
Swift was 17 when he was arrested for the rape and murder of Nina Glover, 30, a prostitute whose body was found in a trash bin behind a liquor store; she had been strangled. He and the other teens spent close to 16 years in prison before being cleared in 2011 when DNA from Glover's body matched that of Johnny "Maniac" Douglas, a convicted murderer and serial sex offender.
Prosecutors at first discounted Douglas' DNA match in Glover's case, saying her history of trading sex for drugs made it possible she had consensual intercourse with him. But a judge threw out the convictions and in 2012 granted the four certificates of innocence, both over the objections of prosecutors.
Among the officers sued is Kenneth Boudreau, a longtime detective whose history of obtaining dubious confessions was detailed in the 2001 Tribune series Cops and Confessions. The suit also named James Cassidy, a key detective in obtaining false confessions from 7- and 8-year-old boys in the killing of 11-year-old Ryan Harris in 1998. The boys, as it turned out, could not have produced the semen found on Harris' body; a convicted sex offender later pleaded guilty.The detectives, both now retired, have denied wrongdoing in their investigation of Glover's strangulation death.
An FBI report generated as part of a Department of Justice inquiry into the case quoted a former Cook County prosecutor admitting the four were fed information by Chicago police and coerced into making false confessions, attorneys for the four said last year in court papers.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-englewood-4-case-settled-20170518-story.html
This is the story of four innocent young men sent to jail for 16 years. The four were only proved innocent when DNA evidence proved that someone else committed the murder. You will have to read the entire story to see how police and others worked together to convict innocent people. Chicago has a history of corruption at many levels. Note that the detectives "now retired, have denied wrongdoing.."
It is an ugly story, but at least these four men are now free and will get large settlements from the city. Please note too, that the judge declared these four men "innocent" in 2012. It took five years to get a settlement from the city.
Here is another link about this case, from 2012..that will give some additional information. This article is originally from the Chicago Sun Times, but it appeared in another periodical (Peoples Law Office.com)
http://peopleslawoffice.com/englewood-four-say-city-police-ignored-evidence-that-could-have-cleared-them/
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