Matthew F. Kennelly
A former death row inmate who alleges Chicago police fabricated evidence and withheld crucial facts in his criminal case is entitled to a new trial on his civil rights claims, a federal judge held today.
In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly did not rule on the merits of Nathson E. Fields’ contention that wrongdoing by both the police and the city led to his conviction in a double murder.
But errors he himself made, Kennelly wrote, during pretrial discovery and in response to a jury question during deliberations unfairly prejudiced Fields in his bid to prove the city has a policy of concealing favorable evidence from defendants in criminal cases.
Jurors also may have reached a different verdict on Fields’ due process claims against three current or former Chicago police detectives, Kennelly wrote, if they had known that a witness who implicated Fields in the murders would be released from prison just months after testifying last year in the trial of the suit.
The “accelerated release” of Earl Hawkins, Fields’ former co-defendant in the murder case, “arguably had a direct connection to Hawkins’ testimony against Fields” in the civil case, Kennelly wrote.
And because Hawkins was a primary witness in support of the detectives’ contention that Fields was guilty of the murders, Kennelly wrote, the knowledge that he would soon be a free man likely would have led to a different verdict.
Kennelly set an April 27 status hearing in the case.
In 1986, Fields and Hawkins were convicted of murdering two men and were each sentenced to death in a bench trial before then-Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Maloney.
In 1993, Maloney became the first judge in Illinois history to be convicted of fixing murder cases.
In seeking a new trial, Fields alleged Maloney accepted a $10,000 bribe to acquit him and Hawkins but then returned the money and convicted the pair after becoming suspicious that the FBI was investigating him.
Fields won a new trial. Hawkins agreed to testify against him in return for a reduced sentence on lesser charges.
Fields was acquitted in 2009. He had spent 18 years in prison, including 12 on death row.
Following his acquittal, Fields obtained a certificate of innocence under Illinois law and then filed his civil rights suit in federal court.
Fields alleges three current or former detectives — David O’Callaghan, Joseph Murphy and Daniel Brannigan — faked evidence, withheld exculpatory materials and coerced witnesses to make false identifications.
He also alleges the city hid a so-called street file generated during the murder investigation. The city kept such records in 20 file cabinets hidden in a basement, Fields alleges.
Last year, a jury in Kennelly’s court found in favor of Fields on his due process claim against O’Callaghan and awarded him $80,000.
The jury found in favor of the defendants on all other claims.
Today, Kennelly granted Fields’ motion for a new trial for damages only on the due process claim against O’Callaghan. He also granted a new trial to determine both liability and damages on all the other claims.
In his opinion, Kennelly noted that Hawkins had reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors as well as with the state.
The federal agreement called for Hawkins to plead guilty to racketeering, narcotics and conspiracy charges in return for a 60-year prison sentence, Kennelly wrote.
At Fields’ civil trial, he wrote, Hawkins testified that his plea agreements with state and federal prosecutors kept him in prison until 2026 — other witnesses placed the year at 2027 — “if nothing don’t happen.”
“Something did happen, however,” Kennelly wrote.
The U.S. Parole Commission, he wrote, released Hawkins on parole at the recommendation of a hearing examiner.
The examiner made the recommendation after receiving letters supporting Hawkins from Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Hogan Jr. and two of the three police detectives sued by Fields, Kennelly wrote.
Hawkins’ release on federal parole, he wrote, brought into play a revised plea agreement with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
That agreement led to Hawkins’ release from prison in September 2014, months after the trial of Fields’ suit, Kennelly wrote.
Knowledge of this forthcoming “bonanza,” he wrote, could have prompted the jury in the civil suit to award Fields more than $80,000 on his due process claim against O’Callaghan.
And it could have prompted the jury to rule in favor of Fields on some or all of his other claims, Kennelly wrote.
The case is Nathson E. Fields v. City of Chicago, et al., No. 10 C 1168.
The lead attorney for Fields is sole practitioner H. Candace Gorman.
“This is a good day for justice,” she said.
She contended that Fields’ conviction was an example of prosecutors “trying to win at all costs.”
“They knew Mr. Fields was innocent,” Gorman said. “That’s why they had to pay people off to testify against him.”
The lead attorney for the city and the detectives is Terrence M. Burns of Dykema, Gossett PLLC.
Law Department spokesman John Holden did not have an immediate comment.