Chicago City Wire

It’s unclear if lawyers with the plaintiffs’ firm of Loevy & Loevy, which accused former Cook County prosecutors of misconduct in a case involving the murder of a police officer, ever reported the prosecutors to the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), as required by law under the 1988 Himmel Doctrine.

An article posted on the Loevy & Loevy website concerning a wrongful conviction lawsuit stemming from the 2011 murder of police officer Clifton Lewis mentions two former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorneys by name—Nancy Adduci and Andrew Varga. The article relates to the case of Alexander Villa, who was convicted in 2019 of Lewis’s murder while Lewis was working off-duty as a security guard to earn money for his upcoming wedding.

In October 2024, former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx exonerated Villa. Loevy & Loevy, working with attorney Jennifer Blagg, filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit on his behalf in federal court in February. Villa had been a suspect in the shooting of Lewis along with two other Spanish Cobra gang members; charges against them were also dropped, and they too filed wrongful conviction lawsuits.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx | Facebook

The Villa civil complaint “alleges police and prosecutors conspired to hide and suppress evidence that would have proven his innocence,” the Loevy & Loevy article stated.

“Cell phone tower maps provided by the FBI showed that the three men were nowhere near the scene of the crime at the time of the shooting, and nowhere near each other,” the article said. “But, instead of introducing this evidence, Assistant State’s Attorneys named in the complaint hid it from the court and instead fabricated phony maps that implicated Mr. Villa and the other two men.”

Adduci and Varga are named in the complaint.

Any prosecutor who fabricates evidence commits a crime, one former prosecutor told Chicago City Wire, and under Himmel, an attorney with knowledge of the wrongdoing must report it to the ARDC. Failing to do so invites disciplinary action, including suspension from practicing law.

Loevy & Loevy did not respond to a request for comment that asked if any of their attorneys filed Himmel complaints against any of the prosecutors. ARDC does not comment publicly whether it received a complaint or not

Additionally, the cell phone evidence was vetted by Cook County Judge James Linn who in 2023 reviewed the claims of misconduct against the police and prosecutors, including the claims about the maps.  He ruled that Villa received a fair trial.

"There is little to no evidence for Foxx to justify her actions [her exoneration of Villa]," wrote Martin Preib, author of "Crooked City" published last October on Substack. "A central issue, for example, in the Villa case was the parading of cell phone records by Villa’s attorneys in front of the press and the courts, despite the fact that the records were already rejected as legitimate evidence exonerating Villa and two other Spanish Cobras. Villa’s advocates continue to claim the cell records prove one of the offenders could not have been on scene at the time of the crime. But that so-called evidence was based on using an incorrect time zone, a difference of two hours."

Additional evidence against Villa includes the testimony of a witness in the car with the two shooters and the getaway driver before, during, and after the murder. The witness testified before a grand jury that Villa was the first shooter and identified the second shooter and getaway driver. At trial the witness did not testify to the same [flipped] and was impeached with the prior grand jury testimony.

 On the night of the crime Villa spoke to a friend in the presence of a witness, who later testified before the grand jury and at trial that Villa told the friend he had been involved in a robbery and murder. Villa was gloating that he killed a “pig”.

A week after the murder, Villa attempted to erase his entire Facebook account after hearing police were near his house.

A few weeks after the murder, Villa spoke to a friend in the presence of a witness about getting rid of the weapons used in the murder. That witness later testified in the grand jury and at trial about what they overheard regarding Villa's involvement in the robbery and murder.

In a preemptive move to block Foxx from freeing Villa, lawyers for the FOP to file a motion on behalf of Lewis’s mother, Maxine Hooks, and his sister, Nicole Johnson. The motion cited the protections in the Illinois Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act.

In the motion, attorneys Timothy Grace and James McKay recounted the events of December 29, 2011 at M&M Quick Foods, located at 1201 North Austin Boulevard.

Villa, they said, entered the store with a “known and fellow Spanish Cobra gang member," and announced their intention to commit an armed robbery.

Lewis announced that he was a Chicago Police Officer and ordered them to stop. Lewis then opened fire and Villa and his accomplice returned fire.

“Officer Lewis was shot a total of four times by Villa and his co-defendant, that being three to the right back and one to his abdomen,” the attorneys said. “Officer Lewis was brought to Stroger Hospital where he passed away due to Villa's actions.”

Citing the protections in the Crime Victims Act, the attorneys said “it is these protected victims’ position that the Cook County State’s Attorney is not honoring the statutory rights that are given and that they are in need of private counsel to protect their interests, to ensure that justice is served, and that Officer Lewis’s murderer is properly and fairly prosecuted.”

The family was brushed aside.