Chicago again: Wrongful conviction case focuses a suborned witness

A Chicago police officer and the convicted felon he is alleged to have coerced and bribed into giving false testimony are the heart of Armando Serrano's bid for freedom, according to a Northwestern University Law School attorney and a journalism professor trying to win him a new trial.

That allegation has been obscured by the recent publicity surrounding the Northwestern University journalism students who have worked on Serrano's case. Serrano, 38, has spent nearly two decades in prison for murder.

Last month, Cook County prosecutors asked a judge to allow them to subpoena records compiled by students with the Medill Innocence Project, arguing that they are entitled to a full accounting of the work that led to the recantation of Francisco Vicente, the state's key witness at Serrano's 1994 trial.

They contend that what few documents they have received raise questions about whether project director David Protess' students or a private detective who works with them promised benefits to Vicente in exchange for recanting.

Protess said he believes the request for subpoenas is designed to divert attention from Vicente and the story he tells about former Chicago police Officer Reynaldo Guevara.

"He would do whatever was necessary to take people he believed were criminals off the street," Protess said. "It's clear that there was a pattern and practice by Area 5 police officers to recruit snitches to falsely testify against innocent men, and Ray Guevara was at the heart of it."

Serrano and two other men — Jose Montanez and Jorge Pacheco — were convicted in separate bench trials before Circuit Judge Michael Bolan of killing Rodrigo Vargas in 1993 as he left his Humboldt Park apartment for work.

Montanez is also seeking a new trial, largely based on the same evidence gathered by the Medill students, while Pacheco was acquitted after Bolan reversed his decision in that case.

In a trial with no eyewitnesses or confession from Serrano, the state relied heavily on the testimony of Vicente, who was himself facing lengthy prison sentences if convicted in a string of armed robberies. Vicente testified that he met with Serrano and the others after the slaying and they admitted they shot the man during a robbery. In return, he received special treatment from prosecutors, and was sentenced to just 9 years in prison.

Original report here




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