Exonerated inmate wins $17M at trial

CHICAGO — A federal jury on Friday awarded more than $17 million to a former inmate who alleged that three former Chicago police detectives — including one who has been at the center of nearly 20 cases tossed out of court — framed him for a murder he didn’t commit.

The verdict marks at least the second multi-million dollar jury verdict in favor of a former inmate who alleged that Reynaldo Guevara helped frame him. And Jacques Rivera is one of 18 men who have had their convictions in cases involving Guevara tossed out of court amid allegations of brutality and coercion.

During the trial, Rivera’s attorneys alleged that Guevara coerced a 12-old boy, the only witness in a 1988 slaying, into identifying Rivera as the killer. Rivera spent 21 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2011.

For his part, Guevara did what he has done repeatedly in other cases: He refused to answer questions. Last year, for example, after he either refused to answer questions or said he did not remember basic facts, a judge tossed out the convictions of two men who had been in prison for more than two decades as he accused Guevara of telling “bald-faced lies.”

Guevara has never been charged with a crime, but in civil trials jurors are allowed to draw what is called a “negative inference” from his silence.

On Friday, Guevara and two other former detectives were ordered to pay a total of $175,000 in punitive damages.