ACTIVIST: PROBE CONVICTIONS LINKED TO CORRUPT COPS

Journalist files petition for judge to look into claims rogue officers planted drugs, lied on stand

An activist who helped force the city to release the video of Laquan McDonald’s shooting is asking Cook County’s top criminal court judge to launch a probe of a police corruption scandal that dates back more than a dozen years and could result in the exoneration of dozens of people who were shaken down by rogue narcotics officers.

Former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts led a crew of officers who, for more than a decade, robbed and extorted protection money from drug dealers and gang members in the Ida B. Wells public housing project. Watts and fellow officer Kallatt Mohammed each pleaded guilty to charges in 2012, but justice has been slow in coming for the targets of their long- running scam.

Independent journalist Jamie Kalven, who earlier this year published a lengthy article about Watts’ crew, filed a 49- page petition on Tuesday with Judge Leroy K. Martin Jr. It calls on the judge to appoint someone to investigate the claims of people who say Watts and his subordinates planted drugs on them or lied on the witness stand as part of a lucrative protection racket.

“This was their [ modus operandi], the way Watts coerced cooperation: Threaten false arrest. He’d say ‘ Show us where the drugs are, or the guns are, or we’ll put a package on you,’ ” Kalven said Tuesday, hours after filing the petition, which outlines multiple cases that have already been documented in which Watts set up Wells residents to take the fall for bogus charges.

The petition also calls on Martin to appoint a “special master” in charge of investigating claims from people who say they were targeted by Watts’ crew, similar to the probe that was used to unwind dozens of false convictions of men who were tortured by former CPD detective Jon Burge and his “midnight crew” of officers.

Recently, former Wells resident Ben Baker was exonerated after being framed by Watts and sentenced to 14 years in prison for possession of drugs that Watts planted on him. After Baker refused to pay Watts a bribe, Watts would arrest Baker twice, the second time also arresting Baker’s wife, Clarissa Glenn. Baker insisted he was innocent at a bench trial, but he was found guilty based on false statements by Watts and three officers under his command. After the trial, fearing she also would be railroaded, Baker’s wife pleaded guilty and received a year of probation.

Baker served 10 years of his sentence before his release earlier this year, after Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office dropped the charges, citing Watts’ guilty plea in 2012 to federal charges

“THISWAS THEIR [ MODUS OPERANDI], THE WAY WATTS COERCED COOPERATION: THREATEN FALSE ARREST. HE’D SAY ‘ SHOW US WHERE THE DRUGS ARE, OR THE GUNS ARE, OR WE’LL PUT A PACKAGE ON YOU.’ ”

JAMIE KALVEN, independent journalist, on ex- Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts ( left) and his crew of corrupt cops

connected to robbing an FBI informant. Glenn was pardoned in 2015 by Gov. Pat Quinn.

There are likely many cases in which Watts’ crew lied on the stand or planted evidence, said Joshua Tepfer of the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project, who represented Baker in his appeals and also is serving as Kalven’s lawyer.

Records from Watts’ federal case indicate that hewas running his protection scheme since at least 2000, and he continued until his arrest in 2012. Watts supervised as many as 10 officers on a shift and made biweekly pickups of cash from drug dealers and couriers in exchange for turning a blind eye to their illicit business.

“If thiswas going on for over a decade, if they were engaged in weekly, bi- weekly payments, we can assume that the ‘ tax’— that is, people going to prison for not paying— was happening routinely, too,” Tepfer said.

A special master would be able to use subpoena powers to get records from the CPD and other agencies necessary to see the extent of Watts’ activities and to verify claims from victims who say they were convicted based on tainted cases, Kalven said. It also would shed light on the depths of Watts’ case at a time when Chicago citizens and the city administration are keenly interested in matters of policemisconduct.

“The Watts case touches on so many themes that we see in the department today,” Kalven said. “From patterns of police misconduct, to the code of silence and how it extends to the highest levels of the department, to communication . . . in these kinds of long, wide- ranging corruption investigations, that end up producing only one or two people who are charged with anything.”