Chicago City Wire

A federal judge has struck a status hearing in the wrongful conviction case of Nevest Colman and Derrell Fulton, convicted of the 1993 murder of Antwinicia Bridgement, and is instead demanding that the parties in the case file supplement briefs answering some key questions.

Judge Martha Pacold of the U.S. District for the Northern District of Illinois is asking the parties to answer questions “with citations to relevant evidence.”

The judge wants to know (1) “which pieces of allegedly fabricated evidence were introduced at trial? (2) Which pieces of allegedly fabricated evidence were not introduced at trial? (3) Against which plaintiff (if either) was each piece of allegedly fabricated evidence introduced? (4) Did plaintiffs receive judicial determinations of probable cause to justify their pretrial detention? (5) If so, who made these determinations? (6) As to each plaintiff, what information was presented to the magistrate who made the probable cause determination? (7) As to each plaintiff, what information was presented to the prosecutor who made the ultimate charging decision?”

The judge added that the supplemental briefs should not contain legal arguments. If the answers to any of these questions are not available to the parties, the parties should inform the court, the judge said. The briefs are due by Jan. 17, 2025.

In 1997, Fulton and Coleman confessed to the murder of Bridgeman, whose mutilated body was found in the basement of a South Side home where members of Coleman’s family lived. 

In 2017, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx vacated their convictions on claims by the two of police misconduct, and the lack of their DNA at the murder scene. 

In July, the national legal watchdog group, Judicial Watch, asked Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to reopen the case. 

"More advanced DNA tests on samples not available at the time of the murder from Bridgeman's undergarments revealed semen from another individual, a serial rapist,” Judicial Watch wrote. “These tests became the basis for claiming the men had been coerced into confessing by Chicago detectives, who dismissed the tests as conclusive evidence of innocence and maintained that numerous possibilities could account for the DNA sample that did not vindicate the men.

Moreover, Judicial Watch wrote, that prosecutors under Foxx “were shocked at the decision to vacate the convictions.”

“Another factor in the case is tied to statements top prosecutors working under Foxx made during depositions,” Judicial Watch wrote. “In those depositions, these prosecutors stated they believed Coleman and Fulton were guilty of the crimes and that detectives in the case committed no misconduct.”

Judicial Watch also cited statements from prosecutors saying pressure from the media, particularly the Chicago Tribune, led to the exonerations.

"I think Eric Zorn [Tribune reporter] didn't have any understanding of the facts of that case and did not have a basis to be writing the things that he wrote,” one prosecutor stated during a deposition. 

A Judicial Watch spokesman told Chicago City Wire that they never received a response to their letter to Snelling and the Chicago Police Department never responded to a Chicago City Wire request if the Department is considering reopening the case.