Another 19 convictions tied to a corrupt Chicago cop are being tossed
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said Tuesday more than 100 people with over 133 cases have had their convictions vacated since 2017.
By Bill Kirkos and Omar Jimenez, CNN
Another 19 people had their criminal convictions vacated as part of a review of convictions tied to a crooked Chicago cop, former Sgt. Ronald Watts, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said Tuesday.
More than 100 people with over 133 cases have had their convictions vacated since 2017, as prosecutors reviewed misconduct by Watts and members of his unit, according to Foxx.
“We were able to provide the relief to right the wrongs of the past but make no mistake, this is a sorrowful, sorrowful moment knowing that these individuals will never get that time back in their lives,” Foxx said. “Their families will never get that time back and their futures were dictated by the actions of these officers.”
The people whose sentences were vacated claimed they were framed by Watts and the police unit he ran. For more than a decade, Watts and his team operated a “protection racket” that involved planting evidence and fabricating charges against South Side residents “while facilitating their own drug and gun trade,” according to The Exoneration Project, a free legal clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
In 2013, Watts was sentenced to nearly two years in prison for stealing thousands from an FBI informant posing as a drug dealer. He was released in 2015.
CNN could not immediately reach Watts for comment on Tuesday.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it will not oppose petitions filed by 48 more people — involving 54 cases — requesting their cases be dismissed as part of the office’s ongoing review.
Those actions will be divided across two court, dates: February 8 and February 16.
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