Politics
Cost to Resolve Lawsuits Tied to Disgraced Ex-CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara Tops $473M, With 25 Lawsuits Pending
(WTTW News)
The Chicago City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pay $260.8 million to 17 men who spent who spent a combined 383 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted based on evidence gathered by disgraced former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara.
The total cost of defending and resolving 32 lawsuits naming Guevara, who has been repeatedly accused of falsifying police reports, framing suspects and coercing witnesses, now stands at $472.8 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.
Another 25 lawsuits remain pending in federal court, including one filed by Marilyn Mulero, who spent 29 years in prison after being sentenced to death, records show. Settlements reached by city lawyers in two cases are awaiting approval by the City Council.
Before city lawyers negotiated the mass settlement to resolve 16 lawsuits in one fell swoop, taxpayers had already paid $13.2 million to private lawyers to defend Guevara and the other officers who worked alongside him from those claims, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
The mass settlement agreement calls for the city to make four equal payments in April and October 2027 and April and October 2028 to resolve the cases covered by the mass settlement, officials said.
All of the cases set to be resolved were brought by Loevy & Loevy, a firm that specializes in police misconduct litigation.
In all, Chicago taxpayers have paid $56.2 million to private attorneys to defend Guevara and the other officers named in 57 lawsuits alleging they committed a wide range of misconduct.
A total of $416.5 million in taxpayer money went to those who said they were victimized by Guevara and their attorneys, who typically earn 40% of any settlement, records show.
Guevara is now one of the most notorious members of the Chicago Police Department, costing taxpayers more than any other officer, including former Commander Jon Burge, who tortured and beat more than 100 Black men, from the 1970s to the 1990s, city officials have acknowledged.
Guevara, who retired from CPD in 2005 and lives in Texas, collects an annual pension of $91,000, records show.
A judge determined Guevara told “bald-faced lies” while under oath in 2017, a fact that will be presented to any future jury asked to determine whether the city should be held accountable for claims of misconduct.
Guevara has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination hundreds of times during court proceedings, refusing to answer questions about whether he falsified police reports, framed suspects or coerced witnesses into identifying criminals.
That means Chicago officials have little hope of winning any of those cases at trial. Many of the people he helped convict who have sued the city have been granted certificates of innocence by judges.
Most of the people Guevara is accused of framing in the 1980s and 1990s are Latino and lived in Humboldt Park, which was home to many working-class Chicagoans long before the Northwest Side neighborhood began to gentrify.
City officials did not probe Guevara’s conduct until 2013, eight years after he retired and began collecting his pension. That report, which was commissioned by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, cost the city $1.9 million but has never been released by city officials.
Despite Guevara’s well-documented misconduct that sent 55 now-exonerated Chicagoans to prison for decades, any attempt to revoke his pension is sure to fail, since he was not charged with criminal wrongdoing, much less convicted, while a Chicago police officer.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget forecast anticipates setting aside $401 million in the 2027 budget to resolve lawsuits, $226 million more than in 2026, records show.
The bulk of the city’s legal bills go toward resolving lawsuits that allege Chicago police officers committed misconduct.
In all, the city is facing an $882.5 million budget gap in 2027, Johnson said.
Note: Loevy and Loevy has done legal work for WTTW News.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
