Arlington Heights Man Sues Police A Year After Sentence Reversed

CHICAGO — A man who spent nearly five years in prison on a murder conviction that later was overturned has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last week against five north suburban police departments and their officers.

Jesús Sánchez, 24, of Arlington Heights, was convicted in November 2014 of the murder of 23-year-old Rafael Orozco, who was killed May 1, 2013, outside a Wheeling apartment complex. Sánchez was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

But a 20-count complaint filed Wednesday on his behalf in federal court in Chicago accuses Wheeling, Wilmette, Skokie, Lincolnwood and Evanston — plus a dozen of their detectives — of conspiring to violate Sánchez's constitutional rights or failing to intervene to prevent his rights from being violated.

To convince a jury of his guilt, prosecutors relied on a confession elicited by detectives who repeatedly lied to the then 18-year-old Sánchez about having incriminating evidence and witnesses against him, according to the Illinois Appeals Court. A three-judge panel unanimously reversed his conviction last April, finding Sánchez should never have been convicted.

"Even with the statements in evidence, the prosecution did not present sufficient evidence to prove Sánchez guilty," wrote Justice P. Scott Neville. "The evidence convincingly shows that Sánchez did not murder Orozco." Sánchez received a certificate of innocence in November.

"Police arrested him without probable cause and held him for 12 hours before he confessed. Most notably, the detectives told Sánchez he could not call his mother until he told them the truth about the shooting, and they told him they already knew he shot Orozco," wrote Neville.

The opinion recommended that sanctions be considered for the officers involved, who violated state law by refusing Sánchez's repeated pleas to talk to his mother.

The prosecutors in the case were Assistant State's Attorney Michael F. Crowe and former Assistant State's Attorney Michael P. Gerber, who went on to be appointed as a judge in 2016 before losing a primary and failing to secure an additional appointment last year.

During the trial, Gerber used Sánchez's tears and requests to speak to his mother during his involuntary confession as evidence he was actually guilty, the appellate court noted.

"He wants his Mommy. He is nothing but a sniveling cowardly killer," said Gerber, a longtime prosecutor at the Rolling Meadows courthouse. "That's what he is."

Police and prosecutors convinced jurors that Sánchez had fired at another teen in a gang-related dispute. Sánchez and a 14-year-old friend were arrested after Wheeling police noticed them running away in the area of the shooting. His lawsuit said they were being chased by gang members.

The suit said the detectives it names "conspired and agreed amongst themselves that they were going to charge" either Sánchez or his friend with the murder. It said the officers knew that his clothing did not match the shooting suspect and there were no witnesses indicating he was involved. Police decided to carry out a presumptive gunshot residue test on the teens anyway. The officers told Sánchez the preliminary result was positive, but later tests of him and his clothes were found to be negative for gunshot residue, an expert testified at trial.

Sánchez's lawsuit notes the appeals court found his confession was "involuntary and unreliable" and "illegally obtained" by detectives. During more than 12 hours of interrogation, they "repeatedly intimidated [Sánchez], lied to him about the evidence they falsely claimed incriminated him, forced him to make inculpatory and false statements, and denied him the right to speak with his mother," his lawsuit said, "despite his repeated pleas to do so, and violated his right to have his entire interrogation video recorded as required by Illinois state law."

Earlier: Murder Conviction Overturned For Arlington Heights Man

Sánchez is seeking compensation for spending close to five years in prison for a crime he did not commit and the pain it caused him both before and after being released. According to his lawsuit, Sánchez suffered from deep depression and constant fear and anxiety while in prison, at one point attempting to kill himself. He continues to experience despair and "symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder from his wrongful detention, coercive interrogation, malicious prosecution, wrongful conviction and wrongful incarceration."

Read more: Illinois Appellate Court Ruling in People v Sánchez filed April 10, 2018

In his ruling overturning Sánchez's conviction, Justice Neville, who last year was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court shortly after delivering the opinion, warned that detectives should reconsider the practice of lying to the public:

[T]his case shows us how the use of deception in interrogations leads to false confessions. Deceptive practices contribute to an atmosphere in which whole communities act with hostility toward police. If police want the members of the community to treat them with respect and help them in their efforts to reduce crime, police should renounce the use of deceptive practices in law enforcement so that the members of the community learn that they can trust police officers to treat them honestly. The practice of deception in interrogations and other settings can destroy the trust needed as a foundation for the relationship between police officers and the members of the communities the police officers have a duty to serve and protect. A revision of police department rules, and the actual imposition of significant sanctions for deceptions, might help repair the strained relations between police and some of the communities they have a duty to serve.

Read more: Jesús Sánchez v Wheeling, Evanston, Wilmette, Lincolnwood, Skokie and 12 named detectives

Patch staffer Jonah Meadows contributed