Chicago City Wire

In November 2018, Cook County Judge Matthew Coghlan lost his bid for retention, the first county judge to face such a loss in 28 years.

Coghlan was targeted by Injustice Watch, a leftist non-profit that “examines issues of equity and justice in the court system.” The media covered the campaign.

In a report on the judge’s lost retention bid, the Sun-Times wrote that “scrutiny of Coghlan’s background was spearheaded by reports from Injustice Watch, an online news outlet, that were published in the Chicago Sun-Times. Those reports fueled calls from progressive organizations and lawyer groups to oust the 18-year incumbent.”

Coghlan’s sin was to deny allegations that as a state’s attorney, he helped retired Detective Reynaldo Guevara frame two men convicted of murders. The two were exonerated after 23 years in prison and they sued Coghlan based on their allegations. Coghlan fired back in court.

Claims of misconduct against Guevara have led to over a dozen wrongful conviction lawsuits filed in federal court. Many are still pending but some have already resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.

Chicago City Wire has investigated some of the wrongful conviction claims brought against Guevara. One case surrounded the convictions of Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes for a 1998 murder of a husband and wife in Bucktown, and the abduction of their two children. In 2021, the two were awarded Certificates of Innocence, even though some prosecutors were still convinced they were guilty of the crimes. They filed wrongful conviction lawsuits in 2018, and the cases are ongoing.

In New York, Manhattan Judge James Burke, who in 2020 sentenced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault, lost his seat in 2022.

Mayor Eric Adams’ Mayoral Advisory Committee on the Judiciary (MACJ) declined to recommend Burke for reappointment.

“Burke’s actions during the high-profile trial enraged a close friend of Frank Carone, Mayor Adams’ chief of staff,” a report published in “The City” said.

“Weinstein was represented in his trial by, among others, criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala, a close friend of Carone’s,” the report said. “During the trial, Aidala repeatedly grew angry at Burke, who was overseeing the proceedings in his role as acting Supreme Court judge.”

In late April, the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) ruled that the lower courts errored in allowing witnesses to Weinstein’s behavior in incidents – not included in the indictment. In New York, they are referred to as Molineux witnesses. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned.

In 2020, a federal judge in Illinois ruled in convicted murderer Stanley Wrice’s wrongful conviction case that a woman was not permitted to recount her years' long abuse by Wrice that began when she was 14. Yet, federal rules of procedure allow such witnesses.

Jane Manning, the director of Women’s Equal Justice and an expert on the law, told Chicago City Wire that the judge should have allowed the testimony in the case.

“The main guideline under federal rules is that the judge has to find the ‘similar crimes’ evidence more probative than prejudicial before admitting it,” Manning said in an email. “This leaves a lot to the discretion of the judge, who can say, ‘I find this more prejudicial than probative.’ That said, the ruling in the Wrice case strikes me as clearly wrong. It was squarely relevant on two core questions: - did he do it, and - was it reasonable for law enforcement to believe he did it. I think it should absolutely have been admitted.”

In 2020, a jury, not having heard the woman’s testimony, awarded Wrice $5.2 million.