15 Prisoners have Convictions Thrown Out in Chicago Over Crooked Cops

Corruption is Everywhere - Chicago Police

Allegations of corruption in the Chicago police force

probably go back about a hundred years

 A Chicago police officer attends a news conference. © Jim Young / Reuters

Fifteen men who were framed by a corrupt team of cops in Chicago have had their convictions thrown out en masse, leading to calls for hundreds of other cases linked to the team led by disgraced former officer Ronald Watts to be investigated.

The 15 had their convictions quashed Thursday, and hours later, seven cops allegedly part of Watts’ team that “terrorized the Ida B. Wells housing projects in Chicago for over a decade” were removed from street duties while their conduct is under investigation, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Following the mass exonerations, believed to be the first of its kind in the history of the Windy City, Joshua Tepfer, lead attorney for the 15 vowed to review as many as 500 other convictions linked to the crooked squad.

“It needs to be investigated and vetted about how many of those are appropriate to overturn,” Tepler said. “We are very much in the process of doing that.”

In addition, five other Watts-related convictions had already been thrown out earlier, bringing the total number, so far, to 20.

Further to these, two other men walked free both having served lengthy sentences and both for double murders they had not committed. These were not linked to Watts and his crew but because of alleged misconduct by the force.

Sixty-six-year-old Arthur Brown was released on Tuesday, having served 29 years, while on Wednesday, Jose Maysonet, 49, was released after serving 27 years.

Watts and his team acted with impunity for years despite being repeatedly accused of forcing residents and drug dealers to pay a protection tax. If anyone refused, Watt simply framed them.

As Leonard Gipson, one of the men stitched up by Watts recounts to the Tribune, he filed a complaint with Chicago Police in 2003, alleging that Watts had framed him on a drugs charge for failing to pay protection money. His complaint went unheeded.

When Gipson came across Watts again, four months later with his drug charge pending, the then sergeant said: “Let me see if you can bond off on this,” before slapping the cuffs on and planting 28 grams of heroin on him.

On the advice of his attorney, who said it was his word against the cops, Gipson pleaded guilty to the charge. On Thursday he had three convictions thrown out. “Watts always told me, ‘If you’re not going to pay me, I’m going to get you,’” Gipson said. “And every time I ran into him, he’d put drugs on me. Every time.”

In 2007, Chicago officers Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria were allegedly told by their superiors to ignore evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Sergeant Ronald Watts, but the two reported it to the FBI all the same.

What the officers thought would end in a simple meeting turned into “Operation Brass Tacks.” Their involvement in the FBI’s investigation into Watts eventually became a full-time job, so they were forced to inform CPD internal affairs.

The whistleblowers ended up spending two years on the case, resulting in a 22-month prison term being handed down to Watts in October 2013.

What about his superiors? When do they pay the piper? There's no way he could operate for that long without his superiors knowing.

'Everyone is Being Framed', Journalist Deported from Turkey Tells of Govt Media Takeover

There are two reasons why autocratic states take over their media: 

1. They are doing, or planning something either illegal or immoral, ie invading Crimea

2. They are completely paranoid. The KGB and its forerunner kept Stalin terrified that someone was always trying to overthrow him. They knew it wasn't true but that's empire building at its finest.

But it doesn't have to be an either / or situation. It could well be that Erdogan is completely paranoid; and it is certain that he is assisting ISIS and attempting to destroy the Kurds.

Riot police use tear gas to disperse protesting employees and supporters of Zaman newspaper at the courtyard of the newspaper's office in Istanbul, Turkey March 5, 2016. © Osman Orsal / Reuters

The latest government takeover of the Zaman media outlet in Istanbul is "not a surprise at all," a journalist who had been working in the country told RT, adding that "the press has never been free in Turkey."

"Everybody who opposes them [the government], every journalist who is against the government is being framed. I was framed as a terrorist supporter and Zaman is linked to the Gulen movement – which is a movement of a religious Turkish leader [Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen] who is based in the US, and they say he is trying to stage a coup against the government. So now Zaman journalists and people who read Zaman are being framed as coup supporters, that's how the government is doing it," Frederike Geerdink, Dutch freelance journalist who was deported from Turkey last year, told RT.

On Friday, the Istanbul-based Turkish-language Zaman newspaper, which has been sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was ordered into administration by a court decision. Following the order, which the outlet journalists proclaimed an "unlawful takeover," the paper's editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici was fired by trustees, while police put barbed wire around the headquarters.

"All content management systems at Zaman" have also been blocked by the new administration, Zaman's sister publication in English, Today's Zaman, said, with its journalists covering the situation via social media and posting updates on Twitter.

"All internet connection is cut off at the seized Zaman building by police raid," they posted, adding that after the takeover of the headquarters in Istanbul, Ankara office has also "lost access to company internal servers."

Government affiliates have also taken under control and blocked access to the outlet's Cihan news agency, Today's Zaman reported, adding that it is "the only news agency that was monitoring elections besides state-run Anadolu."

"It's not a surprise at all. Several of the government newspapers have in the last couple of weeks hinted at this [takeover] already, and other media who are linked to the Gulen movement have come under the same procedure with trustees," Frederike Geerdink, who has herself been prosecuted in Turkey "for making propaganda for a terrorist organization," said.

The journalist told RT that she has been in contact with one of Zaman's employees, who told her weeks ago that they had been "having a difficult time" because of government pressure. Zaman was losing advertisers and readers, "because if you work for the state you cannot be seen with Zaman under your arm, as it can lead to losing your job," the Dutch journalist was told by her Turkish colleague.

"Zaman was being attacked for months," she said, but added that the current situation with the media in the country "is not something new."

Two years ago, one of Today's Zaman journalists, Azerbaijan national Mahir Zeynalov, was deported from Turkey after having worked at the Turkish newspaper for years. The reporter was facing prosecution related to a tweet, his employers said, adding that a complaint against Zeynalov was filed by then PM Erdogan, accusing the journalist of "defamation and inciting public to hatred."

"People now think that Erdogan invented the lack of press freedom in Turkey - which is totally not true. He takes it to extreme heights – that's definitely true, but the press has never been free in Turkey," Geerdink told RT. "For example, 20 years ago nobody could go to the southeast to report on the realities there. At the time it was the army that was censoring the press, and now Erdogan is using the same mechanisms to silence opponents," she said.

Not only government-owned media outlets are being biased in Turkey, the Dutch journalist said. Some are under indirect, economic pressure.

"Most of the big papers and big channels, also the ones we call 'mainstream' which are not necessarily total mouthpieces of the government, have economic ties to the government, because they are part of big companies, and have to report in line with general government policy. [Otherwise] these companies lose contracts in the telecom market," Geerdink said, adding that CNN Turk – which hasn't been covering the Zaman protests, is one example.

"CNN Turk cancelled two rather popular talk shows of people who are not really in line with the government - and that is another problem in Turkey," she said.