A federal lawsuit alleges that Chicago city and county officials enabled police officers to carry out a “wide-ranging scheme to manufacture evidence,” leading to the wrongful convictions of three innocent men for the murder of a Chicago police officer.
Alexander Villa, 36, filed the lawsuit nearly five months after a Cook County judge vacated his conviction and granted him a new trial, citing evidence that his rights had been violated, The Chicago Tribute r
eported. Villa endured eight years behind bars on a wrongful conviction for the murder of Officer Clifton Lewis before the court’s ruling.“No one can pay Mr. Villa back for what he has been
through, and Officer Lewis’ family may never find justice for their loss,” Jennifer Blagg, one of Villa’s attorneys, said in a statement. “And the city of Chicago taxpayers continue to pay for the CPD’s refusal to change a well-documented pattern of misconduct that goes back decades.”It was last October when things got tense during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building when the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office admitted to uncovering potentially exculpatory evidence that had not been disclosed to the defense, but opted not to pursue a retrial.
Villa was one of three individuals charged in the case, which has sparked a separate lawsuit and complete disarray within the state’s attorney’s office. Prosecutors had already dismissed charges against the other two defendants, Edgardo Colon and Tyrone Clay, who are now pursuing their own legal claims.
The lawsuit claims that police officers, with support from prosecutors, falsified
evidence and withheld key information that could have proven Villa’s innocence after failing to force a confession. According to the complaint, this was part of an investigative unit called “Operation Snake Doctor,” which was assembled to target the Spanish Cobras street gang.Lewis was working as a security guard at a West Side convenience store when two masked men fatally shot him. Misfiled evidence
included an FBI cell tower analysis revealing that Villa was texting his girlfriend at the time of the shooting. Surveillance footage of the incident also showed no indication that either shooter was using a phone, according to the motion.Villa was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but in 2023, his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the state’s attorney’s office had uncovered evidence that should have been disclosed earlier by former prosecutors Andrew Varga and Nancy Adduci.
Varga and Adduci, who either resigned or were terminated, are named in the suit along with the city, county, and a number of police officers and investigators. While the lawsuits aim to seek justice for three wrongfully convicted men, there remain family and loved ones of Lewis who are still seeking answers into his tragic murder.
“I know you are disappointed, and the family is disappointed, but if there is not enough evidence, there is not enough evidence,” Judge Carol Howard said as she delivered her ruling.
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