Chicago City Wire

Two former Fraternal Order of Police leaders have reached out to Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, urging State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to recharge three Latin Cobra gang members in the 2011 murder of police officer Clifton Lewis.

Former FOP President Mark Donahue and former second Vice President Martin Preib previously asked National FOP President Patrick Yoes to urge U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to consider federal charges in the case.

On Dec. 29, 2011, Lewis was working off-duty as a security officer at a West Side convenience store when he was shot and killed. Alexander Villa, Edgardo Colon and Tyrone Clay were arrested in connection with the murder. Two were convicted, but charges against all three were later dropped by former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

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“Relying on bogus media reports alleging misconduct by police and prosecutors, charges were ultimately dropped by Kimberly Foxx, a notoriously anti-police prosecutor,” Donahue and Preib wrote. “The decision shocked prosecutors and police alike."

“Police were hopeful that the newly elected Democrat, Eileen O’Neil Burke, would recharge and try the men for the murders again, but it appears as if politics is playing a powerful role in her office. She has declined to do so.”

O’Neill Burke, sworn in December 2024, could recharge the three despite the earlier dropped charges, a former Cook County prosecutor told Chicago City Wire.

“There is no statute of limitations for murder,” the former prosecutor, who requested anonymity, said. “And Foxx didn’t exonerate them. She dropped the charges. She never said that they didn’t do it. She said the process by which they were convicted was flawed.”

Federal charges could also be pursued on constitutional grounds.

Since the charges were dropped, all three have filed civil rights lawsuits in federal court. Villa’s attorneys at Loevy & Loevy filed his federal lawsuit in February 2025.

The Villa complaint “alleges police and prosecutors conspired to hide and suppress evidence that would have proven his innocence,” according to a post on the Loevy & Loevy website.

“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 post 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.”

However, Cook County Judge James Linn reviewed the cell phone evidence and claims of misconduct in 2023, ruling that Villa received a fair trial.

“Prosecutors who investigated and tried the case, as well as those familiar with it, believe that the men could be convicted again and sentenced to prison where they belong,” Donahue and Preib wrote. “These public servants are hopeful that Burke will change her mind and take up the case. They believe that doing so could yield many fruits that would restore some semblance of justice in Chicago, particularly relating to cases in which police officers have been murdered. Failure to do so could unleash years of legal and media attacks against police and prosecutors merely for doing their job.”