FORMER CPD DETECTIVE REJECTS IMMUNITY OFFER
Prosecutors want cop to testify about whether he beat confessions from 2men
Cook County prosecutors want a judge to force former Chicago Police detective Reynaldo Guevara to testify about allegations he beat confessions out of two men now serving time for a 1998 murder.
Guevara, who has been named in more than a dozen lawsuits alleging he routinely framed suspects during his three decades as a gang unit detective in the Humboldt Park area, has refused an offer of immunity offered by state and federal prosecutors, according to a motion filed Thursday by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Guevara’s name has surfaced in numerous wrongful conviction cases, but the veteran detective has refused to answer questions under oath since 2009. Foxx and federal prosecutors have agreed to offer Guevara immunity from prosecution for any wrongdoing he committed, noting that the statute of limitations likely would have passed for any crimes he committed before he retired in 2005.
Guevara’s lawyer said his client still intends to assert his 5th Amendment right if called to testify, according to prosecutors’ motion, which seeks permission to treat Guevara as a “hostile or unwilling witness.”
Currently at stake is the case against Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon- Reyes, who were sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 murders of Bucktown couple Mariano and Jacinto Soto. The two men say they confessed only after Guevara repeatedly hit and threatened them during an interrogation that lasted more than 30 hours.
“After a thorough review of the totality of the evidence in this case, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office remains confident that Solache and Reyes were not wrongfully convicted,” the motion states. “However, the questions as to whether their confessions were coerced by Detective Guevara deserve a thorough and fair hearing, which can only be achieved if Detective Guevara is compelled to testify.”
It was not clear if Guevara or his attorney would appear in court at a hearing on the motion next week. Guevara’s lawyer did not respond to messages from the Chicago Sun- Times Friday.
Karen Daniel, Solache’s attorney, did not return calls.
Even with an offer of immunity, Guevara is unlikely to say more than “on advice of my attorney, I assert my Fifth Amendment rights,” a phrase Guevara has repeated thousands of times in depositions and testimony in the last seven years, according to Terry Ekl, a veteran attorney who has handled wrongful conviction lawsuits and policemisconduct cases.
Guevara’s immunity doesn’t protect him from being charged with lying on the stand, a lesson Chicago Police officers and their lawyers learned well when former CPD commander Jon Burge was sent to prison for four years for perjury and obstruction of justice. Ten years after he was fired by the CPD amid allegations his “midnight crew” of detectives brutally tortured suspects, Burge was chargedwith lying to FBI agents who asked him about the abuse allegations.
“( Guevara) might not have done anything wrong, but he still ( has) a legitimate concern if he gets up and says he didn’t do anything wrong, and ( prosecutors) line up nine people who say, ‘ No, he tortured me,’” Ekl said.
Guevara’s apparent fear of prosecution has been used to buttress multiple lawsuits claiming his silence all but proves allegations of torture and abuse by defendants are true, Solache and Reyes’ lawyers have argued. His refusal to testify has paved the way for multiple defendants to go free after years in prison.
Last year, Armando Serrano and Jose Montanez were released from prison after serving nearly 30 years in prison for a 1993murder in which Guevara secured their confessions.