Politics
Man Who Spent 15 Years in Prison After Being Framed by Disgraced Ex-Detective Should Get $7M, City Lawyers Recommend
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers should pay $6.95 million to a man who spent 15 years in prison after he was framed by a disgraced former Chicago police detective for a 1995 murder, city lawyers recommended.
Angel Diaz was 21 when he was convicted and sentenced to 44 years in prison after being investigated by Reynaldo Guevara, a former Chicago police detective accused of routinely framing suspects.
The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. A final vote of the City Council could come on Feb. 18.
If approved, it would be the 11th lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved at a cost of approximately $120 million to Chicago taxpayers.
A spokesperson for Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said the proposed settlements “bring the matters to a responsible close” after extensive negotiations to reach resolutions that are fair, fiscally responsible, and in the best interest of taxpayers.”
It is one of four lawsuits naming Guevara that city lawyers have recommended settling that the Finance Committee will consider resolving on Wednesday at a cost of $29.2 million.
Chicago taxpayers paid an additional $490,928 to defend Guevara and the other Chicago police officers named in Diaz’s lawsuit, which was filed in 2018.
Diaz’s lawsuit is one of 44 pending lawsuits against Guevara and the city.
Diaz was convicted of shooting 18-year-old Yolanda Leal, a senior at St. Benedict High School, in January 1995 while she dropped off two friends in Irving Park. Leal died a week after the shooting.
Leal’s friend and boyfriend, Luis Figueroa, told police they did not see the person who shot Leal from a passing car.
Guevara testified that Leal’s father told him Diaz shot his daughter.
After meeting with Leal’s father and Guevara at the police station, Figueroa identified Diaz as the person who shot his girlfriend, and told police it was because Diaz was trying to kill him because the two belonged to rival gangs that were at war.
Diaz chose to be tried by Judge Michael Toomin, who presided over some of the most high-profile cases in Cook County during his more than 40 years on the bench.
During the trial, Figueroa testified that he had not seen who shot Leal, but identified Diaz in a photographic lineup because Guevara had told him he committed the crime and forced him to sign a false statement and testify falsely in front of a grand jury.
Guevara testified that was false, and Toomin convicted Diaz of killing Leal, despite the absence of any other evidence against him.
Diaz was released on parole in 2010, but petitioned for his convictions to be overturned after Guevara was publicly accused of falsifying police reports, framing suspects and coercing witnesses into identifying criminals.
Diaz said police reports proved that Guevara told Leal’s father that Diaz had killed his daughter, not the other way around as he testified, in an effort to pressure Figueroa into identifying Diaz.
In 2023, Diaz was granted a certificate of innocence.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
