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U.S. NEWS Friday 17 November 2017
15 convictions linked to corrupt Chicago cop are thrown out

me, I’m going to get you.’ before Thursday’s hear-
And every time I ran into ing, with the other two still
him, he put drugs on me,” behind bars on unrelated
he said. “I went to prison charges. Their sentences
and did 24 months for ranged from nearly a de-
Watts, and I came back cade to probation. Some
home and he put another said the only reason they
case on me.”He and oth- were out of custody is that
ers said there was nothing they agreed to plead guilty
anyone could do about it. in exchange for shorter
They watched Watts and sentences than the drugs
his crew continue to extort planted on them might
drug dealers and residents, have produced. “I had to,
a practice that lasted for I had a baby due,” said
years, despite complaints 33-year-old Marcus Watts,
to the police department who pleaded guilty to
and statements made dur- drug charges in exchange
ing court hearings. Finally, for a six-month sentence
in 2013, Watts and another and a second set of drug
officer pleaded guilty to charges in exchange for
stealing money from an FBI a seven-month sentence.
Leonard Gipson, one of 15 convicted men, talks to reporters after a judge in Chicago threw out informant, but Watts’ sen- ”Prosecutors asked the
the convictions of the men, who say a corrupt Chicago police sergeant manufactured evidence tence of 22 months was judge to act after the con-
that sent them to prison, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, in Chicago. shorter than those being viction integrity unit of the
(Max Herman /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
handed out to the men he Cook County State’s Attor-
By DON BABWIN police misconduct to lead “Watts always told me, ‘If framed.Thirteen of the 15 ney’s Office reviewed the
Associated Press to overturned convictions, you’re not going to pay men were out of custody cases.q
CHICAGO (AP) — One by the courthouse had never
one, the men told the same seen anything like the or-
story: A Chicago police of- der issued in front of more
ficer would demand mon- than a dozen men whose
ey from them. And if they lives were changed forever
didn’t pay, they would find by the former sergeant.
themselves in handcuffs The men described how it
with drugs stuffed in their was common for blacks in
pockets. the city’s poorest commu-
A Cook County judge on nities to be shaken down.
Thursday threw out the “Everyone knew if you’re
felony drug convictions of not going to pay Watts, you
15 black men who all say were going to jail. That’s
they were locked up for no just the way it was going,”
other reason except that said Leonard Gipson, 36,
they refused to pay Ron- who had two convictions
ald Watts.It was the larg- tossed out.
est mass exoneration in The practice, they recalled,
memory in Chicago. And was all the more chilling
even in a city where it has because the officer was so
become almost routine for open about it.

After California mass shooting,

residents seek police presence

By DON THOMPSON two days after 44-year-old
Associated Press Kevin Neal killed his wife
RANCHO TEHAMA RESERVE, and four others before he
Calif. (AP) — Residents of a died in a gun battle with
remote Northern California deputies. Neal targeted
community terrorized by a an elementary school
mass shooting this week say while randomly shooting at
they want more frequent homes and motorists in the
patrols from sheriff’s depu- sprawling rural subdivision
ties and expressed anger about 130 miles (209 kilo-
and frustration over seem- meters) north of Sacramen-
ingly being left to fend for to. Board president Juan
themselves in what several Caravez was among those
called a “Wild West” at- complaining that deputies
mosphere. The Rancho Te- didn’t do enough to stop
hama Reserve homeown- Neal despite complaints
ers’ association board was from neighbors that he was
meeting Thursday to talk shooting guns at all hours
about more patrols, of the day and night. q

“The sheriff wouldn’t do
anything about it,” Cara-
vez said. Instead, he said
Tehama County Sheriff’s
Department referred com-