Prosecutors drop murder charges after 5 ex-Chicago cops plan to take the 5th
Megan CrepeauContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Cook County prosecutors moved swiftly Wednesday to drop charges against a convicted murderer after five former Chicago cops all indicated they would take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions in court.
Hours later, Jose Maysonet, 49, walked out of Cook County Jail a free man after 27 years in custody for a double murder.
The surprise announcement came despite prosecutors’ continued belief in Maysonet’s guilt, but State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s top assistant said the office could not continue with the prosecution without the testimony of the four detectives and a sergeant — all retired. Among the five was Reynaldo Guevara, who has had numerous convictions overturned on allegations he beat suspects and coerced witnesses.
Maysonet became the second longtime inmate to be released from the county jail in just two days. On Tuesday, Arthur Brown, 66, walked free after county prosecutors reversed course and dropped murder charges against him, saying “significant evidentiary issues” raised “deep concerns” about the fairness of his conviction. Brown had been in custody 29 years for a double murder.
Maysonet, who alleged police beat him into confessing to the murders, had won a retrial after raising conflict-of-interest allegations against his lawyers from the first trial.
Maysonet’s current lawyers had summoned the five former officers — Sgt. Edward Mingey and Detectives Reynaldo Guevara, Ernest Halvorsen, Frank Montilla and Roland Paulnitsky — to testify Wednesday at a hearing in the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Their attorneys disclosed that all five planned to assert their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
First Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Sussman quickly announced that without their cooperation, prosecutors could not proceed to trial.
The state’s attorney’s office “continues to maintain that Mr. Maysonet is guilty,” Sussman told Judge Timothy Joyce.
Saying he was acting “with deep regret and sadness,” Sussman then moved to drop the charges.
Maysonet was granted a new trial last year amid allegations that Richard Beuke and Steven “Randy” Rueckert, his lawyers in the first trial, were representing Guevara at the same time on child support issues.
Neither Beuke nor Rueckert — who is part of the legal team representing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the fatal shooting of teen Laquan McDonald — could be reached for comment.
One of Maysonet’s lawyers, Jennifer Bonjean, said she had planned to call Guevara and the other four retired officers to the stand as part of an effort to get Maysonet’s alleged statement to police thrown out.
Maysonet contended that after his arrest he had refused to speak to Mingey and Montilla without an attorney present. But Paulnitsky, Montilla, Guevara and Halvorsen falsely submitted a police report claiming that Maysonet had admitted to his involvement in the killing, Bonjean alleged.
Maysonet also alleged a second statement to police had been beaten from him by Guevara. Prosecutors had not intended to admit that statement as evidence in his retrial, however, court documents show.
Maysonet was arrested in 1990 for the killing of two brothers on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Prosecutors alleged he drove the getaway car.
He was convicted in 1995 on the strength of police testimony that Bonjean alleged was fabricated.
“Officers who do their job and tell the truth don’t have to plead the Fifth,” said Bonjean, who called for a more thorough review of any cases connected to Guevara and those who worked with him on the Northwest Side.
“There is no such thing as one rogue officer … They must act in a pack, and they must have a pact,” she said.
Maysonet was met by a swarm of reporters as he walked out of county jail alone shortly before 5 p.m. His family was nearby but had not been notified when he was released.
Maysonet, bald with thick glasses and a graying goatee, never lost hope that he would ultimately be released, he said, but he didn’t expect it to happen so suddenly.
“Twenty-seven years was a long time,” he said. “I never lose my faith, never lose my hope.”
His sister broke through the crowd of reporters and embraced him in tears.
“For us, (this was) hell. It was a nightmare,” said Maysonet’s sister, Rose, 44.
The decision to drop the charges came as a shock to the family.
His mother had brought a change of clothes to every court hearing, just in case he was released, his sister said. But Wednesday was the first time his clothes had been left at their home.
“We didn’t bring it, and he comes out,” his sister said in disbelief.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @crepeau
No comments:
Post a Comment