Chicago City Wire

An attorney for Roberto Almodovar, convicted of a 1994 double murder but exonerated by former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, is asking a federal judge to reconsider his summary judgement effectively dismissing all federal charges against one of the police officers named in Almodovar’s wrongful conviction lawsuit that was filed all the way back in 2018.

In her April 4 motion in U.S. District Court for the Northern District, Attorney Jennifer Bonjean said “ample evidence was supplied to this Court from which a jury could infer that Defendant [Mark] Olszewski conspired” with detectives to “maliciously prosecute” Almodovar.

Bonjean also urged the court to reject Olszewski’s motion asking for a reconsideration of the court’s relinquishing its jurisdiction over claims that Olszewski violated state law, claims that mirror allegations of violating Almodovar’s constitutional rights under federal law.

“Contrary to the Defendants’ argument, sending these claims to another court will not cause a substantial duplication of effort where fact discovery is complete and there is nothing left to do,” Bonjean wrote.

In a January order, the court ruled on summary judge in Olszewski’s favor, but relinquished its jurisdiction over state claims.

 “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.”

"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 his alleged accomplice William 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 Guevara, 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.”