Chicago City Wire

Attorneys for Sean Tyler and Reginal Henderson, convicted in the 1994 murder of Rodney Collins, have been granted priority to depose witness Andrea Murray after a federal judge approved the request, even though they did not pursue her deposition during the 18-month discovery period.

“For the reasons reflected on the record, plaintiff's motion for priority in questioning adverse witness is granted, although each side will depose Ms. Murray for equal amounts of time,” U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis wrote in her September 15 order.

In a September 10 filing defense attorneys objected to the plaintiffs’ request for priority in questioning Murray.

“Glaringly missing from plaintiffs’ Motion is the fact that in the 15 months since discovery began, Plaintiffs have never bothered to try to subpoena Murray,” defense attorneys wrote. “Also missing is the fact that Plaintiffs have already taken sworn testimony from Murray. During Plaintiffs’ post-conviction proceedings, their counsel in this case repeatedly met with and interviewed Murray and deposed her. Defendants’ counsel was not present for any of these meetings or her deposition and Defendants were not even parties to those proceedings.”

The lawyers continued: “Plaintiffs now seek to supplant Defendants from their rightful position to depose Murray in this case by declaring, without legal support, that that they get “priority” to lead the questioning in her deposition and get more time than Defendants merely because she is expected to testify ‘adverse’ to Plaintiffs’ claims. (Motion, p. 1.) Plaintiffs’ total failure to undertake any effort in nearly a year and a half of discovery to serve Murray, who they argue is critical to their case, and to then demand to lead the deposition and control the majority of the deposition time while under Defendants’ subpoena must be rejected."

No date for the deposition has been set.

Tyler and Henderson spent 25 years in prison before being exonerated in 2021 by former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

In April, a Cook County judge granted them Certificates of Innocence. They filed wrongful conviction lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in 2023.

Their complaints describe a scheme by detectives to frame the brothers in retaliation for Tyler’s testimony in a separate shooting case.

According to a Sun-Times report, Tyler, who was 17 at the time, was taken into custody and beaten “so severely in the chest, face and eyes that he was later taken to the hospital for vomiting blood.”

The report mentions former Detective Kenneth Boudreau and his partner James O’Brien.

However, an investigation by the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC) in 2020, which recommended a new evidentiary hearing for Tyler, noted that the doctor who treated Tyler said he had a history of hematemesis, or vomiting blood caused by a stomach ulcer or gastritis.

Tyler did not tell medical staff that his injuries were from police torture, and the jail lockup keeper reported no visible injuries or complaints of mistreatment.

Boudreau is a defendant in the lawsuit, although he had minimal association with the case. He and other former detectives have faced multiple wrongful conviction lawsuits linked to former Commander Jon Burge, who was convicted of perjury in 2010 related to allegations of torturing suspects to obtain confessions. Burge died in 2018.

Boudreau called the granting of Certificates of Innocence to Tyler and Henderson “one hundred percent pathetic” in a previous interview.