Chicago City Wire

Jackie Wilson, twice convicted for his role in the 1982 murder of two Chicago police officers, has reached a settlement with Cook County in his wrongful conviction lawsuit, a joint status report on depositions filed in federal court shows.

In the March 4 filing, Judge Franklin Valderama of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois wrote that depositions of three count defendants were no longer needed in the case since “plaintiff [Wilson] has reached a settlement agreement with the Cook County Defendants.”

The details of the settlement, including the amount, are not yet public, and calls to attorneys involved in the case to learn more were not returned to Chicago City Wire.

Also named as defendants in the Wilson suit, filed in June 2021, were city employees, including former Mayor Richard M. Daley. They are not part of the county settlement.

Wilson was first convicted in 1983, along with his brother, Andrew, for the execution style murders of officers William Fahey, 34, and Richard O’Brien, 33, on the South Side. In 1989, Jackie, tried separately from his brother, was acquitted of the Fahey murder but convicted again of the O’Brien murder. He was sentenced to life. In 2018, Cook County Judge William Hooks released Wilson from prison. Andrew died in prison in 2007.

Wilson, who spent 36 years in prison, claimed that he was tortured as a suspect for the murders under the direction of former Commander Jon Burge, who was tried but acquitted of torture in a civil suit in 1989. In 2010, Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in federal court and spent three and a half years in prison. He died in 2018.

Former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Nick Trutenko was the prosecutor in 1989 Wilson trial. Last March, Trutenko was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from a third Wilson trial in 2020. Another ex-prosecutor Andrew Horvat was also charged. Charges against Wilson were dropped in that case based in part on the allegations against Trutenko.

But the case against Trutenko was dealt a blow in November when Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes ruled that Trutenko, and another prosecutor, Paul Fangman, had an attorney-client relationship.

The ruling placed communications between Fangman and Trutenko, obtained through a subpoena by a special prosecutor, off limits in the trial. Special prosecutors immediately announced they would file an appeal in the case.

Judge Valderama referenced that appeal in his filing.

“As this Court is aware, depositions in this case have been significantly impacted by the interlocutory appeal in Defendants Horvat and Trutenko’s criminal proceedings,” the judge said.