Chicago City Wire

Chicago City Wire has filed two complaints against the Cook County State’s Attorney’s (CCSAO) office for not responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking details into why the office supported the exonerations of once convicted murderers, and why it reversed itself in opposing Certificates of Innocence (COIs) for two men convicted of the brutal 1998 murder of a husband and wife and the kidnapping of their children in Bucktown.

In May, City Wire sent a request to CCSAO asking for documents related to all exoneration cases investigated by retired Detective Reynaldo Guevara, and a separate FOIA request for documents related to the exonerations of brothers Juan and Rosendo Hernandez convicted of a 1997 murder. Guevara was the investigating detective in that case as well.

Wrongful conviction lawsuits have been filed in federal court in many of the Guevara cases.

Chicago Police Department

City Wire, which has been reporting on developments in the lawsuits, is looking for the details of the exonerations beyond claims of police abuse by those convicted of the murders. The paper also is seeking information as to why the CCSAO did not oppose COIs in some of the cases (a COI is a powerful weapon for the plaintiffs in a wrongful conviction case). And finally, whether the office had communications with plaintiffs’ attorneys who filed the wrongful conviction lawsuits on behalf of those exonerated of their crimes.

City Wire first requested the Guevara records on May 11. On May 23, six days beyond the statutory deadline for a response, the CCSAO’s FOIA officer wrote back in an email that indicated the inclusion of an attached list of documents related to some of the Guevara cases. Nothing was attached. The office never responded to the FOIA request related to the Hernandez case. In addition, the CCSAO never responded to a City Wire attorney’s follow-up request made in August.

In the 1998 Bucktown case, Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes were convicted of the stabbing murders of Mariano and Jacinta Soto, and the kidnapping of their children.

In 2000, Solache was sentenced to death and Reyes to life in prison. Also convicted and sentenced to life in prison was 23-year-old Adriana Mejia who presented the kidnapped two-month-old child as her own. Mejia, who remains imprisoned, maintained for many years that all three were involved in the murders.

In 2017, the charges against Solache and Reyes were vacated over allegations of abuse by Guevara -- allegations that he has denied.

In 2018, the two filed wrongful conviction cases in federal court. Solache is being represented by plaintiffs’ attorneys Loevy & Loevy; Reyes by the Peoples Law Office.

Last November, a judge granted the two COIs when the CCSAO, in a reversal, did not oppose them.

This, when one former assistant State’s Attorney, Eric Sussman, told CBS Chicago when the charges were dropped: “There is no doubt in my mind, or the mind of anyone who has worked on this case, that Mr. Solache and Mr. Reyes are guilty of these crimes. It is a tragic day for justice in Cook County.”

In addition, Sussman, now in private practice, told Chicago City Wire in an email for an earlier story that he "certainly didn't believe that he [Guevara] coerced confessions in that case."

The FOIA lawsuits were filed in the Chancery Division, Circuit Court of Cook County on September 29.