Politics
Pay $4.9M to Man Who Spent 20 Years in Prison After Being Framed by Disgraced Ex-Detective, City Lawyers Recommend
(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers should pay $4.85 million to a man who spent 20 years in prison after he was framed by a disgraced former Chicago police detective for a 1997 murder, city lawyers recommended.
Ariel Gomez was 17 when he was convicted and sentenced to 35 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 13th lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved at a total cost of approximately $141.5 million to Chicago 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.
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.”
Chicago taxpayers paid an additional $2.45 million to defend Guevara and the other Chicago police officers named in Gomez’s lawsuit, which was filed in 2018.
Gomez’s lawsuit is one of 44 pending lawsuits against Guevara and the city.
Gomez was convicted of shooting 35-year-old Concepcion Diaz near Cicero and Diversey avenues in Belmont Cragin on June 13, 1997. Diaz was part of a large crowd celebrating the Chicago Bulls victory over the Utah Jazz to win the NBA championship.
A witness said the fatal shots were fired from a red Nissan Pathfinder. Soon after the shooting, police found a car matching that description that appeared to have been intentionally crashed not far away, records show.
The crashed Pathfinder belonged to Gomez’s mother.
The teen originally told police it had been stolen while he and four friends saw a movie, but later admitted he was driving it the night Diaz was killed.
Gomez said he confessed to firing into the crowd after Guevara placed a piece of cardboard over the interrogation room window before punching and slapping him repeatedly, records show. Gomez said another officer also struck him during the nearly 20-minute beating, records show.
After an expert testified that Gomez’s gun could not have fired the fatal shot because it was the wrong caliber, prosecutors argued that Gomez had a second gun that officers never found.
After his conviction, Gomez said he fired his gun into the air to celebrate the Bulls’ victory, but did not fire into the crowd.
Gomez was released on parole in November 2017, and his conviction for murder was overturned in February 2018. Gomez pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm for firing once into the air and was sentenced to two years in prison, which he had already served.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
