Chicago City Wire

A federal judge has granted police officer defendant Mark Olszewski his motion for summary judgement (judgment before trial) in the wrongful conviction cases of Robert Almodovar and William Negron, convicted of the 1994 murders of two teenagers.

Olszewski was named a defendant along with retired detective Reynaldo Guevera and former detective Ernest Halvorsen, deceased, in a wrongful conviction case filed by the two convicts in 2018.

“In essence, Olszewski’s motions focus on whether plaintiffs have presented sufficient evidence to show that he was personally involved in a conspiracy with detectives Guevera and Halvorsen to violate plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under Section 1983 [allow victims of civil rights violations to sue those who allegedly violated their rights],” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings wrote in his order. “Specifically, the record shows that Olszewski provided a previously taken photograph of Almodovar from an unrelated arrest to defendant detectives, and that he provided a previously taken photograph of Negron from a different unrelated encounter to non-defendant officers, who in turn provided it to defendant detectives.”

Reynaldo Guevara | YouTube

“Is this evidence," the judge continued, "(along with the other evidence presented by plaintiffs) sufficient to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Olszewski was personally involved in a conspiracy with defendant detectives to violate plaintiffs’ constitutional rights? The Court finds that it is not.”

Olszewski was a tactical officer with the Chicago Police Department assigned to an eight-man tactical gang team in the 25th District, which includes Humboldt Park.

The 2018 wrongful conviction complaint alleges that in 1993, when Almodovar was 18, “he began suffering regular harassment and racially-motivated verbal abuse from defendant Olszewski.”

“Defendant Olszewski was a 25th District gang crimes officer who despised the Humboldt Park community," the complaint said, "viewed all Hispanics as fungible gangbangers, and approached policing the Humboldt Park community as if he was hunting big game."

In the case, the convictions of Almodovar and Negron, both members of the Insane Dragons street gang, were upheld on appeal and subsequent motions for a new trial were also denied, but in 2017 then Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx exonerated the two, citing allegations that retired Detective Reynaldo, the lead detective in the case, framed the two.

Almodovar was released after 23 years but Negron served another year in prison for the conviction of a separate murder.

One legal expert following the exoneration cases said that the order was a big win for police named in dozens of wrongful conviction cases because it looked to the evidence over accusations.

“This is good because a lot of judges get hung up on the smear tactics and don't parse out the timing, facts, or relevance of the plaintiffs' surface dwelling allegations,” the expert, who asked not to be identified, told Chicago City Wire. “This court did and said I do not like that officer called plaintiffs a slur (remember take all well pled facts as true) but that doesn't mean he falsified evidence, deprived plaintiffs of constitutional right, or knew others were.”