The case that started it all...
The Center for the Defense of Wrongful Conviction Lawsuits was started in response to the all too common practice for an exonerated prisoner to turn around and blame the police for his wrongful conviction. In the majority of wrongful conviction cases, an eyewitness misidentified alleged offender. Unfortunately, witness misidentification is a serious issue in criminal cases. But, witness misidentification does not equate to police misconduct. Michael Evans' case was no different.
Andrew M. Hale, as lead trial counsel, successfully defended ten former Chicago Police Officers who were sued by plaintiff Michael Evans in a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Chicago. Michael Evans was represented by Jon Loevy of Loevy & Loevy and Locke Bowman of Northwestern University's MacArthur Justice Center. Back in 1976, Evans, who was then 17 years old, was convicted of the kidnaping, rape and murder of nine-year old Lisa Cabassa on Chicago's southeast side. An eyewitness, Judith Januszewski, testified at Evans' criminal trial that she saw her neighbor, Evans, struggling with Lisa Cabassa on the street corner the night Lisa disappeared. Evans spent 27 years in prison before he was released in 2003 after DNA from a rectal swab taken from Lisa Cabassa that had been preserved did not match Evans. Subsequently, Evans received an innocence pardon from Governor Rod Blagojevich. In 2004, Evans filed suit against ten former Chicago Police Officers and the City of Chicago alleging the Police Officers conspired to frame him for the crimes committed against Lisa Cabassa.
Andrew M. Hale argued that the Police Officers had probable cause to arrest Evans based on the eyewitness testimony, as well as other corroborating evidence. Andrew M. Hale argued that the Police Officers did not fabricate any evidence to support their arrest of Evans, as Evans had claimed. The trial lasted nearly four weeks, and included testimony from Evans, the eyewitness, the defendant Police Officers and numerous other former Chicago Police Officers, the former State's Attorneys who prosecuted Evans back in 1976, Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine, as well as several expert witnesses. During closing arguments, plaintiff's counsel asked the jury to award Evans over $50 million in compensatory damages and another $10 in punitive damages. After deliberating a little more than a day, the jury returned a verdict in favor of all ten defendants on all four counts of the complaint.
