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

In 2005, Maria Guzman filed a civil rights lawsuit against Chicago police officers claiming her home was illegally searches and she was unlawfully detained.  Police officers had a valid search warrant. The search warrant was for a single family residence.  After being in Guzman's home for twenty minutes, police officers realized that it was not a single family residence as it appeared from outside - so they left.  Defendants won summary judgment, but the case was reversed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court held that the search was illegal because the officers should have known they were not in a single family home and left earlier.  

At her damages trial, Guzman claimed she was "emotionally distressed" by these twenty minutes. Guzman claimed police put her unborn baby into distress and caused her to have contractions when she was only thirty weeks pregnant. Guzman asked the the jury for thousands of dollars in "medical expenses" and unspecified damages for "emotional distress."  

The jury saw right through it all and came back in under two hours  with a $1 verdict for the "technical violation."

Mary McCahill, Anne Preston, and Tom Platt of the Corporation Counsel's Office represented the police officers.

Larry Jackowiak, Louis Meyer, and Adele Nicholas represented Guzman.

Another great result!!!  

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We previously reported Alton Logan, who was convicted in 1983 of shooting a security guard at McDonald's, had been issued a certificate of innocence by Chief Judge Paul Biebel Jr. in the Cook County Circuit Court. Logan was convicted by a jury, but two attorneys last year revealed his innocence. A client of theirs had admitted to them that he had committed the crime, however, they could not come forward until that client passed away in 2007.

As predicted, Logan has now filed a lawsuit. According to the complaint filed in the United Stated District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Logan alleges Jon Burge and other officers withheld material evidence that would have proved his innocence.
 

Noticeably absent from the lawsuit are any allegations against Dale Coventry or Jamie Kunz., the lawyers who have admitted to withholding information that would have exonerated Logan and prevented his alleged "wrongful conviction" from ever occurring.

Jon Loevy of Loevy & Loevy has filed the lawsuit on behalf of Alton Logan.

More to follow on this case
 

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Ellen Coyne, the mother who was arrested by Crestwood police for leaving her two-year old daughter in her car while she and her other children went to put money in a Salvation Army kettle has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the Crestwood police of false arrest and malicious prosecution. Cook County prosecutors dropped the criminal charges against Coyne last week. 

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