Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit Defense Blog : Wrongful Conviction Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Andrew M. Hale Law Firm

 The Chicago Sun Times reports that a jury tonight has found Shawn Gaston guilty of murdering Chicago police officer Alejandro Valadez. Earlier today, on the last day of trial, the jury was shown a videotape of Gaston confessing to shooting Valadez. Police found a .40 caliber gun along with a rifle and the .357 weapon tied to Valadez's murder in the trunk of Gaston's car. Gaston had denied driving that car, but the evidence showed that Gaston had received a traffic ticket in the very same vehicle just an hour before the shooting. State's Attorney Anita Alvarez told the jury during closing arguments that the "police did their job in this case and they followed the evidence." Gaston's attorney, John Paul Carroll, continued with his nonsense during the closing arguments by referencing the Salem Witch Trial, the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero and the Nazi "hero" of Nanking. He also claimed the guns were planted. Yeah, right. Carroll apparently had no explanation for the videotaped confession. Glad to see that justice was swiftly served. Gaston's co-defendants, Kevin Walker and Christopher Harris , are still awaiting trial.

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 The Chicago Tribune reports that Anthony Porter has been arrested for stealing deodorant from a Walgreens drug store in Chicago. 

Porter had received $145,000 from the State of Illinois in 2000 after he was released from prison. 

There is so much more to the Anthony Porter case. We will be blogging about this case frequently down the road because it raises a lot of questions about Porter's actual innocence and the manner in which David Protess and Northwestern journalism students investigated the case.

More to follow. . . 

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 The Chicago Sun Times reports that Northwestern has decided not to appeal a recent court ruling and, instead, will turn over to prosecutors approximately 500 email messages between former Medill Innocence Project Director David Protess and former journalism students. Stay tuned to this story. More developments are sure to come. . . 

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 The law firm of Andrew M. Hale & Associates won its ninth Chicago police trial this year. The most recent victory came in a case brought by plaintiffs Melvin Wiley and Darnell Russell. Details of that case appear in the blog post below. The trial team for the latest victory was Avi Kamionski, James McGovern and Cherie Getchell. Judge Hart presided over the case which took place at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.

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 On February 22, 2007, Chicago police officers Damen Balesteri, Dennis Oboikovitz, Sharmaun Freeman and Shaun McGovern arrested Melvin Wiley after he was observed selling drugs on the 6200 block of South Laflin on the south side of Chicago. Officer Balesteri observed Wiley conduct two hand-to-hand transactions while conducting a drug surveillance from an abandoned building across the street. Wiley told a very different story, claiming that he had two of his friends, Darnell Russell and Sydney Hunter, came to the 6200 block of S. Laflin because Wiley was going to take his young daughter out to celebrate her birthday. Wiley and Russell claimed that the officers pulled them out of Russell's car at gun point and placed them in handcuffs. Wiley, Russell and other witnesses claimed that while in police custody on Laflin, one of the officers put his finger in Russell's rectum, causing Russell to have a seizure. Wiley and Russell claimed that the police officers just left Russell on the street to die after allegedly having this seizure. Russell and Wiley marched their family members into court to testify on their behalf but they could not keep their stories straight.  Russell's mom had claimed she witnessed her son on Laflin after having a seizure but it was shown that she was actually at work at the time of the incident. Russell's step-father testified but in his testimony he admitted he never even saw Wiley at the scene of the incident. On the last day of trial, plaintiff's counsel was allowed to call a rebuttal witness to testify there was no abandoned building on the 6200 block of S. Laflin, but on cross-examination it was shown, via Google Maps, that there clearly was an abandoned building on the 6200 block of S. Laflin, consistent with Officer Balesteri's testimony. Russell claimed he went to the hospital relating to this incident but he offered no medical testimony to support his allegations. After deliberating for less than an hour, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant police officers on all counts. The Chicago police officers were represented by attorneys Avi Kamionski, James McGovern and Cherie Getchell from the law firm of Andrew M. Hale & Associates. The plaintiffs were represented by attorneys Sam Adam, Jr. and Jeffrey Neslund.

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 Trial has gotten underway in the criminal case involving the murder of Chicago police officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez. Shawn Gaston, 22, is the defendant on trial and gave a videotaped confession to the shooting. No surprise, his defense attorney is now trying to spin a different fairytale, these comments coming directly from Jason Meisner's Chicago Tribune article:

"In his animated, hour-long opening statement, Gaston's attorney, John Paul Carroll, told jurors police broke procedure and even fabricated evidence in their 'frantic' search for the killer. He suggested the weapons may have been planted in the trunk after the car was impounded."

Really Mr. Carroll? That's what you think the evidence will show? Yeah right. And what about that videotaped confession?

And how about these comments: "Twice, Carroll referred to the investigation of is client - who is African-American -as 'lynching.' He also brought objections from prosecutors when he stated that '97 percent of white people in this country are good, God-fearing people."  Hmm. . .  what is Mr. Carroll doing here? Pretty pathetic. 

Hopefully, justice will be served. 

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 The Daily Northwestern ran the above-titled article today.

A good quote comes from Joe Mathewson, Assistant Professor of Ethics & Law of Journalism at Northwestern:

 "The typical journalist is not an advocate."

Well said.

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 The Chicago Tribune reports today that Judge Dianne Cannon has ruled that more than 500 emails between former Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his students detailing their efforts to free prisoner Anthony McKinney must be turned over to prosecutors. Judge Cannon held that the students were "acting as investigators in a criminal proceeding" and further stated that "In this case, the Medill students worked at the direction of Anthony McKinney's attorneys, conducting interviews, gathering evidence" and that "while a book may be written or an article published. . . the information is subject to the rules of discovery." We here on the defense side of these police cases have long opined that NU's law students act as investigators, not journalists. Judge Cannon agreed. Will be interesting to see where things go from here. . .  Stay tuned.

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 The Chicago Tribune's Jason Meisner ran a story yesterday about how the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has charged Willie Johnson with perjury after he tried to recant his prior testimony from 17 years ago. Johnson was shot nine times back in 1992 and identified two rival gang members - Cedric Cal and Albert Kirkman - as the men who shot him. Two years later, at the criminal trial, Johnson testified under oath that Cal and Kirkman were the shooters. His testimony sent them both to prison for life without parole. Now, 17 years later, Johnson has recanted his testimony (how convenient) and testified in a post-conviction hearing that he identified the defendants out of fear of the real killer. But, the criminal court judge didn't buy it and found that Johnson's recantation was not credible. And here's the interesting part - before providing his "recantation," Johnson sought advice from "Ray Ray" Longstreet, a "five star universal elite" member of the Vice Lords who was sentenced last year to 30 years in prison. Hmm. . . . Sounds to us, and the judge, like the Vice Lords convinced/demanded Johnson to recant his prior testimony. We've been talking about this issue for some time - recantations due to pressure from gangs and gang leaders. Way to take a stand against this nonsense State's Attorney's Office. Keep up the good work.

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 The Chicago Tribune has a story online under "Breaking News." Two brothers filed a lawsuit  against the Chicago police claiming they were beaten when they left a liquor store. This is breaking news? Two people who ALLEGE they were beaten by the police. We don't know any of the facts yet? There has been no discovery or trial? And this is a story in the Chicago Tribune under "Breaking News" ??Really Tribune? You got nothing else to report about? Let's see if Ryan Haggerty (the reporter) runs a a followup when more facts emerge. I highly doubt it. Another example of the media bias we are constantly reporting about.

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 As reported in our blog posts below, new evidence has surfaced implicating Anthony Porter, once again, for two murders that took place in Chicago in 1982. Earlier this year, Steve Mills from the Chicago Tribune wrote an article noting how Porter's release from prison had a major impact on then Governor George Ryan abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. The article quoted Ryan's deposition in from another case (Oscar Walden v. City of Chicago) where Ryan testified that he was watching Porter's release from prison on television with his wife "and I turned to my wife, and I said, how the hell does that happen? How does an innocent man sit on death row for 15 years and gets no relief? And that piqued my interest, Anthony Porter." Hmm. . .  wondering how things would have played out if Governor Ryan would have known all the facts, including the recent eyewitness testimony from Raymond Brown?

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 Here's a copy of the ARDC complaint filed against attorney Jack P. Rimland by William Crawford (Retired Investigative Journalist), James Delorto (Retired Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Agent), John Mazzola (Retired Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Agent), Martin Prieb (Chicago Police Department Officer) and Raymond Brown (Eyewitness to the 1982 pool murders).

Pretty explosive stuff. . . 

The final paragraph states:

"In closing, one wonders if Judge Fitzgerald would have ordered a halt to the Simon sentencing had the judge been made aware that the eyeball witness  fingered Porter as the triggerman and that Rimland et al had withheld other evidence that proved Simon's innocence."

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 Chuck Goudie from ABC News in Chicago reports that in a complaint filed with the Illinois Supreme Court's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission by Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Bill Crawford, a new witness has come forward claiming that he witnessed Anthony Porter shoot and kill two people at a park in Chicago in 1982. Ray Brown, who was 12 years old at the time, now states "I seen Tony Porter do it, I looked right in his face and I seen him, seen his long braids, he's got a tattoo in his face, I seen everything." In an affidavit that is part of Crawford's complaint, Brown states that "[Porter] terrified the neighborhood, he was a stone cold killer. So, when anyone hear his name, Tony Porter, everybody run in your house. He had a bad reputation. I'm 42 now and that happened over 30 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday."  Brown says he never went to the police because he was a scared 12-year old and because Porter was arrested and convicted. In his affidavit, Brown further states "The police locked him up for it so I thought it was a done deal till I seen him on the news getting out and I'm like how did he get out when he killed them? And they showed another guy's face and that wasn't the guy who killed them."  Crawford's complaint alleges that attorney Jack Rimland, who was the attorney for Alstory Simon, who later confessed to the shooting, of intentionally withholding evidence that Simon was actually innocent and his confession was coerced. After Simon's confession, Porter was released from prison and brought a civil lawsuit against the Chicago police handling his case. A jury rejected Porter's claims that he was maliciously prosecuted. Stay tuned - this story has a long way to go and things will be getting very interesting.

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