Chicago City Wire

The girlfriend of a convicted murderer and gang member could be key in the defense of a former Chicago detective named in a wrongful conviction trial.

Cassandra Taylor, girlfriend of Arnold Day who was convicted for the 1991 murder of Jerrod Erving on the South Side, has been cited in a motion by attorneys for former city Detective Kenneth Boudreau, who investigated the murder, as steering Day’s Blackstone gang associates to influence witnesses.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office vacated Day's conviction in December 2018. He filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2019, alleging that Boudreau coerced him into confessing.

Cook County State's Attorney's Office | cookcountystatesattorney.org

“Defendants believe that the evidence in this case also tends to show that she (Cassandra Taylor) spent years helping Plaintiff locate key witnesses so other Blackstone gang members in Plaintiff’s gang could solicit false evidence from these witnesses that Plaintiff used to get his conviction reversed,” lawyers for Boudreau wrote in a motion requesting extension of discovery so Taylor could be deposed. “Defendants disclosed recordings of approximately 1,000 calls between Plaintiff and Taylor, selections of which will be discussed in her deposition.”

The motion for an extension of discovery was granted in mid-December by Judge Sara Ellis of the U.S. District Court for Northern District. It’s unclear when Taylor will be deposed.

Sentenced to 60 years, Day's conviction was vacated on the recommendation of the controversial Illinois Torture and Relief Commission (TIRC), a 2009 creation of the Illinois General Assembly. TIRC’s constitutional authority to recommend the release of any prisoner has been questioned by an attorney representing a former assistant prosecutor in another wrongful conviction case.

Boudreau and his former partner Jack Halloran have been named in a series of wrongful conviction lawsuits over their brief association with former Commander Jon Burge. Burge, now deceased, was accused of torturing suspects. He was eventually convicted of perjury charges and spent two and a half years in jail.

Boudreau has even been characterized in the media as a Burge protégé. But for an earlier story, Boudreau noted that he worked under Burge for only a few months, and had almost no contact with his former supervisor.

In another civil case naming Boudreau, city attorneys deposed former prosecutors about their decision not to retry Nevest Coleman and Darryl Fulton for the 1994 rape and murder of Antwinica Bridgeman. In their court filings, the city attorneys allege that Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx’s top prosecutors did not believe Coleman and Fulton were innocent, nor did they believe the detectives engaged in any misconduct in the case.

Both Boudreau and Halloran have denied allegations of abuse in the cases, and say they are willing to go to trial to clear their names.