18 years nets $22M; city to appeal

The city of Chicago is planning to appeal a $22 million jury verdict against it for its role in the wrongful conviction of a man who spent 18 years in prison, 12 of which he spent waiting to die.

After 2½ days of deliberation, the jury determined that the city and two of its police officers had violated Nathson Fields’ right to due process when he was essentially framed for a double murder in 1986.

“The story of what happened to Nate was so outrageous and so egregious and really so corrupt,” said Jon Loevy, an attorney at Loevy & Loevy and one of Fields’ attorneys, during a news conference. “He didn’t do it, and rather than acknowledge that they made a mistake, they doubled down and tried to prove that he had done it.”

During Thursday’s conference at the offices of Loevy & Loevy in the West Loop neighborhood, Loevy portrayed the jury verdict as being a “last chapter” for Fields, a former gang member has been embroiled in a legal fight over his innocence since he was found guilty of killing Talman Hickman and Jerome “Fuddy” Smith in 1986.

But a spokesman for the city Law Department said it plans to appeal the jury verdict.

“We are disappointed by and will be appealing the jury’s verdict,” said Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey.

Shelly B. Kulwin, an attorney with Kulwin, Masciopinto & Kulwin LLP who represented retired Chicago police officer David O’Callaghan, described the jury verdict as “one of the most unfortunate events I’ve seen in my 37-year career.”

Kulwin flagged issues with the court’s rulings on pretrial discovery, and pretrial and in-trial evidence that made it virtually impossible for the defendants to prevail in this case.” However, he declined to discuss what those issues were at length. Kulwin said he would raise them on appeal.

“Given those issues, and what I view as the extremity of those issues, I think there’s a very good chance [of overturning the verdict] on appeal,” Kulwin said.

The $22 million judgment against the city is borne out of a “street files” policy the Chicago Police Department had maintained throughout the 1980s, 1990s and part of the 2000s, Loevy said. A street file is essentially an unofficial report, which could contain evidence that exonerates a particular suspect and is never turned over to the defense.

After years of asking if the police department had any more evidence regarding his case, Fields finally received his street file in 2011, Loevy said. Loevy did not know if the department still maintains this policy.

“They had no excuse why they didn’t produce it for the last 25 years. It turned out that file was sitting in a file cabinet with a whole bunch of other files, Loevy said. “A lot of the evidence at trial concerns 400 to 1,000 files that are in the basement of the city of Chicago that contain material that are relevant to people’s criminal cases. What the jury found is the city has a policy and practice of withholding evidence, and there might be other people in prison whose files are affected by this practice.”

A spokesman for the city said the use of street files has been prohibited by police department orders since 1983.

With respect to those files, Loevy mentioned, the spokesman said the city inventoried and identified the files that resulted in criminal charges. Copies of those files were then turned over to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

O’Callaghan, who was accused of fabricating evidence linking Fields to one of the double murders, will have to pay $30,000 in punitive damages. Joseph Murphy, a sergeant who was also accused of fabricating evidence, as well as impeding Fields’ criminal defense, was sanctioned $10,000. Murphy is still employed by the department, McCaffrey said.

Fields, in his Oct. 27, 2010 complaint, named more police officers, as well as Cook County and three former state’s attorneys, including former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley. Loevy said over the course of the six-year case, the other defendants were either voluntarily dismissed from the case or won on summary judgment.

However, Loevy described O’Callaghan and Murphy as being the two “main guys. They always were.”

The $22 million jury verdict has been touted by the firm as one of the largest wrongful conviction awards in U.S. history. Loevy said the award is larger than what they had requested; they had sought $1 million for each year Fields was in imprisoned, or 18 years.

Fields’ journey to this moment has been fraught with twists and turns. He was sentenced to death in 1986 for the murders of Smith and Hickman.

Fields was a member of the El Rukns gang at the time, while Smith and Hickman were with the Black Gangster Good Squad. There was an ongoing rivalry between the two gangs at the time.

The allegations of Chicago police officers and Cook County prosecutors manipulating, hiding or fabricating evidence against Fields stretch years, including when he was retried in 2009.

This occurred “regardless of the fact that there was no physical evidence or reliable witness that linked Fields to these crimes,” Fields wrote in his Oct. 27, 2010, amended complaint.

Fields was sentenced to death in 1986, and while he was incarcerated, he was set to be executed twice. However, the Cook County circuit judge who oversaw his case, Thomas J. Maloney, was convicted in 1993 of fixing murder cases.

Fields was granted a new trial in 1996 after proving Maloney was bribed by the attorney of Fields’ co-defendant, Earl Hawkins. Fields was acquitted of the charges in 2009.

The city, however, continues to insist that Fields is guilty of killing Hickman and Smith. They noted that Fields never obtained a Certificate of Innocence from the state. A Cook County judge initially granted it in 2009, but this was overturned by a 1st District Appellate Court in October 2011.

“We believed then and continue to believe that the evidence of Fields’ guilt is overwhelming,” the spokesman said in a statement. “This is among the reasons why the prior jury rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims against three of four defendants and all but one claim against the fourth defendant, and awarded the plaintiff only $80,000 on that single claim.”

Fields was denied a Certificate of Innocence by the trial court again, but Steven Art, one of Fields’ attorneys at Loevy & Loevy, said this “was based in part on the perjured testimony of violent assassins, who received sentencing breaks and were ultimately released from prison in exchange for their false testimony against Nate.”

This is the third trial Fields has had on his federal suit against these defendants. In March 2014, a mistrial was declared after O’Callaghan ran afoul of a pretrial in limine motion in his testimony.

U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly ordered a new trial in March 2015 after it was learned that Hawkins, who testified against Fields in the civil jury trial, was granted parole and released from prison in exchange for his testimony. This was not fully disclosed at the time.

In April 2015, H. Candace Gorman, one of Fields’ attorneys, wrote a letter accusing Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Hogan Jr. of participating in Hawkins’ release and meddling in Fields’ trial.

Flanked by his family at the news conference, Fields reflected on his time on death row. He had seen his friends “march to the executioner,” and came close to meeting the same fate. He also expressed regret his mother was not alive today to see this moment.

“I had times I was under so much stress I just didn’t think I would make it. So this day is very humbling,” Fields said. “I wish my mom was here. I miss her. I’m just so happy; I’m so happy.”

The city of Chicago and Murphy were represented by Terrence M. Burns, Daniel M. Noland and Paul A. Michalik of Dykema Gossett PLLC.

In addition to Kulwin, O’Callaghan was represented by Rachel A. Katz, also of Kulwin, Masciopinto & Kulwin.

Fields was represented by Loevy, Steven E. Art, Anand Swaminathan, Sam Heppell, Anthony Balkissoon and Katie Roche of Loevy & Loevy, and Gorman of the Law Offices of H. Candace Gorman.