Crime & Law
Chicago Taxpayers Have Already Paid $3.1M to Fight Lawsuit Filed by Wrongfully Convicted Man Now Set for Trial
(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers have paid more than $3.1 million to fight a lawsuit filed by a Chicago man who spent 17 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder, according to documents obtained by WTTW News.
The lawsuit filed by John Velez, who spent 17 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of 26-year-old Anthony Hueneca in Little Village was overturned, is set for trial on July 21, 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Edmond Chang ruled Tuesday.
If the city loses that trial, it could cost taxpayers between $18 million and $34 million, according to public warnings from Deputy Corporation Counsel Jessica Felker.
Despite those warnings, the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee voted 9-14 on July 15 to reject a recommendation from the city’s lawyers to resolve the lawsuit by paying $7.6 million to Velez.
A visibly frustrated Chang, who attempted to schedule the trial for October and then the spring before agreeing to set it for next summer because of the attorney’s schedules and the difficulty in setting aside enough time for such a complex trial, again warned lawyers for the city on Tuesday that the window to avoid a costly trial is closing. The lawsuit had been set to go to trial this month, before it was delayed by settlement negotiations.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law told WTTW News the department was prepared to try the case.
Chicago taxpayers frequently pay a premium to hire private lawyers to defend police officers in complicated lawsuits that allege they violated the civil rights of Chicagoans, rather than assigning staff attorneys on the city’s payroll to represent him.
The city’s contract with the three police unions that represent all members of the department requires the city to pay to defend lawsuits that allege misconduct.
The last time the City Council rejected a settlement negotiated by its lawyers in a police misconduct lawsuit, alderpeople reversed course several months later and approved the settlement.
The city and its lawyers will now have to convince a jury that two officers did nothing wrong when they investigated Hueneca’s murder, ultimately arresting Velez after they concluded the shooting was part of an ongoing conflict between two street gangs, the Satan Disciples and the Latin Kings.
The lawsuit filed by Velez poses “a large financial risk to the city,” Felker told the Finance Committee.
A jury is likely to award Velez between $15 million and $30 million if it finds officers violated his civil rights in a way that led to his conviction. In addition, the city would also be required to pay his attorney fees, which are likely to total between $3 million and $4 million, Felker said.
The trial in the lawsuit filed by Velez, which is set to take four weeks, will represent a high-stakes gamble for the city that comes after months of growing frustration at the financial toll of police misconduct settlements, which have cost taxpayers at least $69 million between Jan. 1 and July 15 of this year. Annually, the city budgets $82 million to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.
The series of events that led to Velez’s conviction began when he was wounded in a drive-by shooting. Detective Michael Bacardo was assigned to that probe, as well as the investigation of Hueneca’s murder.
Bacardo took a picture of Velez, who was then 18, during the probe of his shooting. Bacardo later showed that picture to two people who said a man threatened them shortly before Hueneca was shot and killed.
Those two witnesses, as well as one of their friends who told police he saw the shooting, later identified Velez as the shooter in a photographic lineup, after Bacardo showed one of them Velez’s pictures, according to Velez’s lawsuit.
Bacardo remains an active member of the Chicago Police Department, earning $102,000 annually, according to a city database. He was never disciplined in connection with his investigation of Velez.
Two days after Hueneca’s murder, Christina Izquierdo, Velez’s girlfriend, was shot and wounded. Izquierdo, who was 5 months pregnant at the time, told police that Velez believed he had been the intended target of the shooting because he shot Hueneca, a Latin King, to avenge the killing of his uncle Gent Velez, who police said was a Satan Disciple along with John Velez, according to Bacardo.
But when John Velez went to trial, Izquierdo testified that what she told police was false; she said she only signed a statement after police threatened to take away her daughter. That statement was taken by former Assistant State’s Attorney Megan Goldish, who has been a Cook County judge since 2014.
The witness who said he saw Velez shoot Hueneca and run away also later told officials he lied, after police agreed to give him a break in an unrelated drug possession case. That fact was never shared with the jury, records show.
In addition, the jury never heard evidence that Gent Velez was not a member of the Satan Disciples, but belonged to another gang, undercutting the motive presented by prosecutors.
Nor did the jury hear evidence that Velez was actually in Cicero at the time of the shooting and could not have run from the scene of Hueneca’s murder because he had been shot in the knee several months earlier and was using a cane.
No physical evidence ties Velez to the murder.
After prosecutors moved to vacate Velez’s convictions and dismiss the charges, Velez sued Cook County and Goldish. That suit was resolved for $2.4 million in January.
Velez never sought a certificate of innocence from a judge, and of the four witnesses who testified against Velez, two witnesses are prepared to testify that they saw him shoot Hueneca, Felker said.
One witness is prepared to testify that she lied during Velez’s trial when she testified that her initial statement to police implicating Velez was false, Felker said. The other witness has also given “inconsistent testimony,” Felker said.
The other two witnesses cannot be located, Felker said.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
