Chicago City Wire

Two plaintiffs in a wrongful conviction lawsuit surrounding the 1993 murder of ten-year-old Rodney Collins are trying to block former Assistant State’s Attorneys (ASAs) named in the lawsuit from subpoenaing Illinois Department of Correction (IDOC) records to show the relationship between the two and three others convicted of the murder.

Brothers Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson were convicted in 1995 of the murder of Collins, who was caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout. Former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx exonerated them in 2021 on claims their confessions were coerced. Not exonerated were Michael Taylor, Antoine Ward,  Andrew Ganoway—Ganoway pled guilty for his part in the murder.

Defense attorneys for former ASAs Steven Klaczynski and Virginia Bigane (only in the Henderson case) argued that “each individual was charged and convicted of the same offense, and all were alleged to have been somehow involved in the shooting or planning thereof. If Plaintiffs plan to distance themselves from the planning meeting and their co-defendants, Defendants must be permitted to discover records like those requested in the ASAs’ subpoena, which could reasonably include indicators of a relationship or interactions with fellow gang members, witnesses, Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs’ family and/or representatives, and documents related to the underlying criminal cases.”

“For example,” the attorneys continued, “ plaintiffs now claim police and ASA Klaczynski coerced one of their co-defendants, Antoine Ward, into implicating Plaintiffs in the murder to bolster an alleged law-enforcement effort to frame Plaintiffs for the Collins murder., who categorically denies these allegations, later memorialized Ward’s inculpatory statement admitting his Gangster Disciples membership and describing the planning and execution of the shooting, although Ward testified in his criminal case that he had no recollection of meeting with an ASA. However, Ward’s story changed in later pro se post-conviction filings, (filed while in IDOC and later dismissed as frivolous), where he claimed wrongdoing by ASA Klaczynski and others, thereby making his credibility and role in the murder central issues for all parties.”

Tyler and Henderson were among hundreds exonerated under Kim Foxx’s eight years in office, stemming from claims that they were tortured by police to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, or that police conspired with prosecutors to frame them for the crimes, or both. Plaintiff attorneys filing wrongful conviction lawsuits on behalf of their clients have tied many of the complaints to former Commander Jon Burge and detectives who had any association with Burge. One was former Detective Kenneth Boudreau.

The Tyler and Henderson civil complaints tell of an elaborate scheme, citing Boudreau and former Detective James O’Brien, to frame the brothers as part of a vendetta stemming from Tyler’s testimony for the defense in a separate shooting case.

But for an earlier story Boudreau told Chicago City Wire that he had minimal involvement in the case. Moreover, he served under Burge’s command for only a few months and had few encounters with him.

The presiding judge is Georgia Alexakis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District.