Chicago City Wire

The scuttlebutt in Chicago among watchdogs and former Cook County prosecutors is that State's Attorney Kim Foxx will spend her remaining three months in office executing a rash of exonerations she has planned, including one convicted of the 2011 murder of a beloved off-duty Chicago police officer.

In his most recent “Crooked City” post on Substack, former Chicago police union spokesman Martin Preib wrote that a move by Foxx to free Alexander Villa could be in the works. Villa is currently serving a life sentence for the 2011 murder of police officer Clifton Lewis. When murdered, Lewis was off duty, working security at convenience store at 1202 North Austin Ave. to earn extra money for his upcoming wedding. 

Two others arrested for the murder, Edgardo Colon and Tyrone Clay who, like Villa, were members of the Spanish Cobra Street gang, had their charges dropped by Foxx in June 2023.

Preib writes that the sudden resignation from Foxx’s office last week of top assistant prosecutors Andrew Varga and John Maher could be a sign that a deal is in the works to free Villa. It was Varga, and former top former assistant prosecutor Nancy Adduci, who were prosecuting the case against Colon and Clay when the charges were dropped.

“[A] rumor has been circulating around 26th and California [criminal courthouse], the belief that the exit of Varga is part of a larger plot by Foxx to march into court and vacate the conviction against the third Spanish Cobra,” Preib wrote, “all but guaranteeing the three men will become wealthy from a federal lawsuit against the prosecutors and the cops who labored so hard to hold three miserable gang thugs accountable for murdering a hardworking police officer.”

Unfounded allegations that Varga and Adduci withheld evidence in the case, according to Preib, were hyped by the media.

“In what has now become a kind of legal and political machine in the city, allegations of misconduct arose against the detectives and prosecutors, along with claims they had the wrong guys,” he wrote. “These allegations were embraced and manically driven by the press goons of the Chicago media, all of them clearly coveting the highest journalism prize in Chicago: the freeing of a police killer.”

Meanwhile, Adduci, 54 years old and white, has sued Foxx for age and race discrimination in the wake of being fired in December 2023. 

Foxx has exonerated over 250 since first taking office in late 2016, and nine Chicago-based social justice groups are demanding that she release more before leaving office in January.  

The groups, including the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression and the Chicago Torture Justice Center, have scheduled a rally on September 30 outside Foxx’s office at 69 W. Washington Street, to demand that she release 21 more they contend have been wrongfully convicted.

“Free More Before You Walk Out the Door” is the rallying cry for the groups per a flyer posted on X. The flyer also states: “Demand the State’s Attorney free more wrongfully convicted men and woman before she leaves office. Free them all.”

At least three of those named—Rico Clark, Lester Owens, and Kilroy Watkins—have nearly identical claims to others Foxx has exonerated, accusing police of coercion and even torture that resulted in their confessions. 

Foxx exonerations reported on by City Wire were justified based on similar claims of torture, fabrication of evidence and police conspiring with prosecutors to secure convictions. But former detectives and prosecutors interviewed by City Wire are adamant that no confessions were coerced, no evidence was fabricated, and no secret deals were made with prosecutors to ensure convictions.

The exonerations have led to dozens of wrongful conviction cases filed in federal court by plaintiff attorneys representing those making the claims. Many have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.

The other social justice groups planning to take part in the upcoming exoneration rally include the Justice for Nick Lee Memorial Foundation, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Saving Our Urban Leaders, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Mothers Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity, National Lawyers Guild UIC Law Chapter, AntiWar Committee Chicago, and the Arab American Action Network. 

Chicago City Wire is following this developing story.