Appeals court: Defamation suit stemming from Alstory Simon case should proceed
A defamation lawsuit stemming from one of the most controversial murder cases in Chicago’s history may have new life after a decision this week by the Illinois Appellate Court.
The court said Monday that the lawsuit filed by private investigator Paul Ciolino against Alstory Simon, Simon’s attorneys and others should be remanded back to the Cook County Circuit Court, a year after the case was dismissed.
“We’re just very eager to begin the process of proving the truth that we’ve been denied,” said Jennifer Bonjean, Ciolino’s attorney.
The appellate court’s opinion could still be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which would have to agree to hear the case.
But while the appellate court said the case should be remanded, it affirmed the circuit court’s decision to dismiss Ciolino’s claim of a conspiracy by the nine defendants.
“What is left in this case are the baseless accusations of Ciolino that statements made by everyone who worked on the exoneration of Alstory Simon in some way have defamed him,” Terry Ekl, one of Simon’s attorneys, said in an emailed statement. “We are confident that these claims will also be dismissed in the near future.”
In 1999, Simon gave a videotaped confession to Ciolino in which Simon took responsibility for killing Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green as they sat in the bleachers by the pool in Washington Park on the South Side in 1982.
Another man, Anthony Porter, had already been convicted in the murders and was set to be put to death when Simon’s confession was brought to the attention of Cook County prosecutors. Porter was released from prison, and Simon was sentenced to 37 years.
The case was a driving force in Illinois’ abolition of the death penalty.
A subsequent review of the case by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office prompted Anita Alvarez, then the county’s top prosecutor, to drop the charges against Simon. He was released from prison in 2014.
Alvarez said David Protess and his journalism students at Northwestern — who, working with Ciolino, were largely responsible for Porter’s release from prison — used “alarming tactics,” and said she was “troubled” by Simon’s legal representation before he pleaded guilty. Protess has said he stands by his work and has denied doing anything improper.
Alvarez added that there are witnesses who continue to maintain that Porter was the real killer, though he could not be tried again under double jeopardy.
The 2014 documentary “A Murder in the Park” reexamined the case and tried to cast doubt on the motivations of and methods employed by Protess and his students in the Medill Innocence Project.
A disclaimer at the beginning of the film, however, notes that the production company “does not guarantee the accuracy of the content.”
Ciolino sued Simon and his attorneys, alleging they conspired with others, including former Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and a former Chicago Tribune reporter, to undo Simon’s conviction and place him, Protess and Northwestern in an unfavorable light in the film, blog posts and a book.
The appellate court agreed with the circuit court’s decision to dismiss Ciolino’s claim of conspiracy. And though television news clips of Alvarez speaking were included in the documentary, the appellate court said the dismissal of Ciolino’s case against her should stand because the statute of limitations had expired before the suit was filed.
According to the lawsuit that Simon’s attorneys filed against Ciolino, Protess and Northwestern, then-Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine convened a grand jury in 1999 that considered Simon’s confession — as well as testimony from four witnesses who said they saw Porter at the scene of the killings — and one witness who said he saw Porter actually shoot the victims.
That grand jury didn’t indict Simon, but a second grand jury was empaneled. None of the witnesses who implicated Porter was presented to that second grand jury, which indicted Simon with the double murder, according to the lawsuit against Ciolino, Protess and Northwestern.
Simon then pleaded guilty on the advice of his attorney, who warned he would face the death penalty if he went to trial, according to the lawsuit.
Simon was awarded an undisclosed settlement in 2018 after suing Northwestern, Protess and Ciolino, though Ciolino had been voluntarily dismissed from the case.