CONVICTIONS VACATED FOR 15 FRAMED BY CORRUPT COP
A Cook County judge on Thursday vacated felony convictions for 15 defendants who claimed they were framed by disgraced Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, following a landmark decision by the state’s attorney’s office to toss aside a string of cases over allegations of police misconduct.
With 10 of the defendants standing in the courtroom, Chief Criminal Courts Judge LeRoy K. Martin approved a motion by prosecutors to throw out a total of 18 cases against 15 men who were arrested by Watts and members of a tactical team that operated in the Ida B. Wells housing projects.
After the hearing, attorney Joshua Tepfer said the move by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx marked the first “mass exoneration” in the history of Cook County.
“It’s an extraordinary sign of what’s going on in this county and this city to have a … crucial law enforcement entity take this step and overturn all these convictions in recognition of a systemic problem of police corruption,” he said.
Mark Rotert, head of Foxx’s Conviction Integrity Unit, said the office could not stand behind the cases after reviewing claims brought by the defendants, who said Watts and his fellow officers planted evidence and filed false reports.
“In these cases, we concluded, unfortunately, that police were not being truthful and we could not have confidence in the integrity of their reports and their testimony,” Rotert said. “So in good conscience, we could not see these convictions stand.”
The decision by the state’s attorney to toss the convictions was first reported by Sun- Times columnist Michael Sneed.
Watts and fellow officer Kallatt Mohammed in 2013 pleaded guilty to stealing $ 5,200 from an FBI informant.
Two of the men exonerated Thursday were currently jailed on unrelated cases, Tepfer said.
Leonard Gipson, 36, was convicted twice on charges in which Watts planted drugs on him, after, Gipson said, he refused to give cash to Watts.
“Every time I ran into him, he put drugs on me,” said Gipson.
“Everyone knows, if you’re not going to pay Watts, you’re going to jail.”
Gipson, who had claimed in court that he’d been framed, only pleaded guilty after a judge ruled he had no proof Watts had planted drugs on him.
Gipson also had filed a complaint about Watts with the CPD, which went nowhere.
“Everyone knew what he was doing.”