Chicago aldermen advanced another $17 million police misconduct settlement Monday tied to a decades-old alleged wrongful conviction.
The hefty sum that still requires full City Council approval would go to Jose Maysonet, who spent 27 years in custody for a double murder before Cook County prosecutors dropped charges against him eight years ago.
The deal recommended by attorneys in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Law Department is only the latest costly police-related settlement to work through City Hall. Aldermen have approved around $300 million in such settlements this year, a record total that trounces that of past years.
Before his 2017 release, Maysonet alleged police, including disgraced Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, beat him into confessing to the 1990 murders of two brothers on the Northwest Side and fabricated a police report claiming he admitted involvement.
When his attorneys summoned five former officers to testify at a retrial, all planned to assert their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, according to their attorneys. First Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Sussman said at the time that his office continued to believe Maysonet was guilty, but could not proceed with the trial without police cooperation.
Maysonet alleged Guevara repeatedly beat him — including with a flashlight and a phonebook — during a 17-hour interrogation, denied him access to an attorney and coerced him to sign a false statement implicating Maysonet as a getaway driver in the 1990 killing.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Jessica Felker told aldermen Monday the city could be forced to pay around $60 million if it loses in court. The case would head to trial in February without a settlement, she said.
She cited “the lack of physical evidence or eyewitnesses and the allegations against Guevara,” who continues to assert the Fifth Amendment, as reasons to settle.
Felker identified Maysonet as a former member of the Latin Kings gang. In the statement he later denied, he confessed to providing three other Latin Kings with a gun, driving them and watching as they approached the two victims, she said.
Maysonet’s girlfriend gave a statement shortly after the murders that three men visited her and Maysonet at home and asked for a gun, according to Felker. The statement also said Maysonet left with the men, returned a couple hours later and told her two men were killed, the attorney continued. The girlfriend testified at trial, but now says she was threatened by detectives, Felker said.
Maysonet’s request for a certificate of innocence was denied in 2022, but he continues to pursue the certificate, Felker said.
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Another lawsuit filed by Alfredo Gonzalez, who was convicted in the murders after he was implicated in Maysonet’s statement as the shooter but freed following decades in prison, remains pending.
Cases tied to Guevara have cost the city millions in recent years. There are 39 Guevara cases pending, including three more for which proposed settlements have already been reached, Felker told aldermen.
The city’s top attorney, Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, has pointed to the remaining Guevara cases as a potential opportunity for the city to reach a “global settlement” that cuts costs by reaching multiple settlements at once.
The city used such an approach for the first time in September to settle almost 200 wrongful conviction cases tied to Sgt. Ronald Watts. While Johnson’s administration will pay out that full $90 million next year, the city will borrow the money to do so, stretching the cost over five years but also raising the final tab covered by taxpayers.
Aldermen also advanced a $500,000 settlement Monday for two women who accused police of injuring them in a car chase that violated department rules. They later advanced a $750,000 deal tied to a traffic crash that involved a police officer.