hawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Shawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – JaJuan Nile was a joker, a picky eater and his mother’s solely son. Rising up, he dreamed of starting a landscaping enterprise.
Nevertheless he on no account acquired the prospect. As an alternative, a run-in with a now-disgraced Chicago police officer put the 20-year-old behind bars for a felony offense he didn’t commit. It modified the course of his life, his family said.
Nile was charged with possession of cocaine in 2007 and sentenced to a couple years in jail. With a felony on his doc, he was repeatedly denied jobs and flats.
Two years up to now, merely after he acquired his certificates of innocence and landed a job, the daddy of three youthful kids was fatally shot.
“He on no account acquired to his full potential because of what occurred to him. It positively led him to do completely different points, led him to get discouraged,” his youthful sister, Shawntell Nile, instructed USA TODAY.
Nile was amongst virtually 200 people who’ve been cleared of bills tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Division workforce. It’s the largest assortment of exonerations inside the metropolis’s historic previous, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the Faculty of Chicago Laws College’s Exoneration Mission, which has represented lots of the victims.
For almost a decade, Watts and his workforce preyed on innocent people on the Ida B. Wells Properties public housing problem, the place they extorted money and planted medicine and weapons, determining their victims – largely Black and low-income residents – wouldn’t be believed, said Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx.
“He was asking for people to pay a tax, for those who’ll,” said Foxx, who has repeatedly despatched written statements and held info conferences on the misconduct allegations and the steps her office has taken to rectify the damage Watts and his workforce induced. “He really carried himself as the very best canine in that neighborhood, and people who didn’t comply had circumstances positioned on them.”
A vacant lot is seen alongside Martin Luther King Drive the place the Ida B. Wells Properties used to face in Chicago, on Dec. 10, 2022. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Watts, an 18-year veteran of the division, had vendettas in the direction of some people, Foxx said. Totally different events he centered people just because “he may,” she said.
Native and federal laws enforcement had been investigating allegations of the workforce’s corruption as early as 2004, in step with a not too way back unveiled report from the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. That’s the equivalent yr Watts gained “Officer of the Month,” in step with courtroom filings.
But it surely certainly wasn’t until 2012 that Watts and a member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammed, had been arrested on federal bills of stealing $5,200 in authorities funds from an undercover informant. They pleaded accountable and had been sentenced to 22 and 18 months, respectively.
Whatever the convictions, native officers did not take movement for the a complete bunch of people who had been arrested by Watts. That is until one sufferer, Clarissa Glenn, pressed the issue.
“Some communities, doorways shut on us, and likewise you don’t know the place to point out,” said Clarissa Glenn, 52. She stands on the nook of East thirty seventh Avenue and South Rhodes Avenue near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties Extension the place she was as quickly as lived. Dec. 10, 2022 Max Herman, USA TODAY
Spurred by Glenn, authorized professionals with the Exoneration Mission and authorized skilled Joel Flaxman began vetting victims’ circumstances and bringing them to the Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer’s office in 2016. The office launched a whole overview of circumstances the following yr, and prosecutors have moved to vacate the convictions in batches through a patchwork of litigation and cooperation with attorneys engaged on behalf of the victims.
Since then, prosecutors have moved to dismiss on the very least 226 convictions and juvenile adjudications linked to Watts and his workforce. Collectively, the wrongful prosecutions worth 183 people sentences of 459 years in jail (not along with pretrial detention), plus 57 probation and 10 boot camp sentences.
An Illinois Courtroom of Claims select described the scandal as “in all probability probably the most staggering circumstances of police corruption” in Chicago historic previous and said “Watts and his workforce of cops ran what can solely be described as a felony enterprise correct out of the movie ‘Teaching Day.'” A Put together dinner County Circuit Courtroom select said officers’ actions resulted in “wrongful convictions.” And an Illinois Appellate Courtroom ruling detailed how “corrupt” officers fabricated a case to protected a false conviction.
About this story USA TODAY interviewed six people whose lives had been upended by Watts and his crew. In the course of securing exonerations, authorized professionals for the victims have filed plenty of paperwork alleging Watts and completely different officers fabricated circumstances. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of the paperwork, interviewed exonerees and attohawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Shawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – JaJuan Nile was a joker, a picky eater and his mother’s solely son. Rising up, he dreamed of starting a landscaping enterprise.
Nevertheless he on no account acquired the prospect. As an alternative, a run-in with a now-disgraced Chicago police officer put the 20-year-old behind bars for a felony offense he didn’t commit. It modified the course of his life, his family said.
Nile was charged with possession of cocaine in 2007 and sentenced to a couple years in jail. With a felony on his doc, he was repeatedly denied jobs and flats.
Two years up to now, merely after he acquired his certificates of innocence and landed a job, the daddy of three youthful kids was fatally shot.
“He on no account acquired to his full potential because of what occurred to him. It positively led him to do completely different points, led him to get discouraged,” his youthful sister, Shawntell Nile, instructed USA TODAY.
Nile was amongst virtually 200 people who’ve been cleared of bills tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Division workforce. It’s the largest assortment of exonerations inside the metropolis’s historic previous, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the Faculty of Chicago Laws College’s Exoneration Mission, which has represented lots of the victims.
For almost a decade, Watts and his workforce preyed on innocent people on the Ida B. Wells Properties public housing problem, the place they extorted money and planted medicine and weapons, determining their victims – largely Black and low-income residents – wouldn’t be believed, said Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx.
“He was asking for people to pay a tax, for those who’ll,” said Foxx, who has repeatedly despatched written statements and held info conferences on the misconduct allegations and the steps her office has taken to rectify the damage Watts and his workforce induced. “He really carried himself as the very best canine in that neighborhood, and people who didn’t comply had circumstances positioned on them.”
A vacant lot is seen alongside Martin Luther King Drive the place the Ida B. Wells Properties used to face in Chicago, on Dec. 10, 2022. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Watts, an 18-year veteran of the division, had vendettas in the direction of some people, Foxx said. Totally different events he centered people just because “he may,” she said.
Native and federal laws enforcement had been investigating allegations of the workforce’s corruption as early as 2004, in step with a not too way back unveiled report from the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. That’s the equivalent yr Watts gained “Officer of the Month,” in step with courtroom filings.
But it surely certainly wasn’t until 2012 that Watts and a member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammed, had been arrested on federal bills of stealing $5,200 in authorities funds from an undercover informant. They pleaded accountable and had been sentenced to 22 and 18 months, respectively.
Whatever the convictions, native officers did not take movement for the a complete bunch of people who had been arrested by Watts. That is until one sufferer, Clarissa Glenn, pressed the issue.
“Some communities, doorways shut on us, and likewise you don’t know the place to point out,” said Clarissa Glenn, 52. She stands on the nook of East thirty seventh Avenue and South Rhodes Avenue near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties Extension the place she was as quickly as lived. Dec. 10, 2022 Max Herman, USA TODAY
Spurred by Glenn, authorized professionals with the Exoneration Mission and authorized skilled Joel Flaxman began vetting victims’ circumstances and bringing them to the Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer’s office in 2016. The office launched a whole overview of circumstances the following yr, and prosecutors have moved to vacate the convictions in batches through a patchwork of litigation and cooperation with attorneys engaged on behalf of the victims.
Since then, prosecutors have moved to dismiss on the very least 226 convictions and juvenile adjudications linked to Watts and his workforce. Collectively, the wrongful prosecutions worth 183 people sentences of 459 years in jail (not along with pretrial detention), plus 57 probation and 10 boot camp sentences.
An Illinois Courtroom of Claims select described the scandal as “in all probability probably the most staggering circumstances of police corruption” in Chicago historic previous and said “Watts and his workforce of cops ran what can solely be described as a felony enterprise correct out of the movie ‘Teaching Day.'” A Put together dinner County Circuit Courtroom select said officers’ actions resulted in “wrongful convictions.” And an Illinois Appellate Courtroom ruling detailed how “corrupt” officers fabricated a case to protected a false conviction.
About this story USA TODAY interviewed six people whose lives had been upended by Watts and his crew. In the course of securing exonerations, authorized professionals for the victims have filed plenty of paperwork alleging Watts and completely different officers fabricated circumstances. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of the paperwork, interviewed exonerees and attohawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Shawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – JaJuan Nile was a joker, a picky eater and his mother’s solely son. Rising up, he dreamed of starting a landscaping enterprise.
Nevertheless he on no account acquired the prospect. As an alternative, a run-in with a now-disgraced Chicago police officer put the 20-year-old behind bars for a felony offense he didn’t commit. It modified the course of his life, his family said.
Nile was charged with possession of cocaine in 2007 and sentenced to a couple years in jail. With a felony on his doc, he was repeatedly denied jobs and flats.
Two years up to now, merely after he acquired his certificates of innocence and landed a job, the daddy of three youthful kids was fatally shot.
“He on no account acquired to his full potential because of what occurred to him. It positively led him to do completely different points, led him to get discouraged,” his youthful sister, Shawntell Nile, instructed USA TODAY.
Nile was amongst virtually 200 people who’ve been cleared of bills tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Division workforce. It’s the largest assortment of exonerations inside the metropolis’s historic previous, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the Faculty of Chicago Laws College’s Exoneration Mission, which has represented lots of the victims.
For almost a decade, Watts and his workforce preyed on innocent people on the Ida B. Wells Properties public housing problem, the place they extorted money and planted medicine and weapons, determining their victims – largely Black and low-income residents – wouldn’t be believed, said Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx.
“He was asking for people to pay a tax, for those who’ll,” said Foxx, who has repeatedly despatched written statements and held info conferences on the misconduct allegations and the steps her office has taken to rectify the damage Watts and his workforce induced. “He really carried himself as the very best canine in that neighborhood, and people who didn’t comply had circumstances positioned on them.”
A vacant lot is seen alongside Martin Luther King Drive the place the Ida B. Wells Properties used to face in Chicago, on Dec. 10, 2022. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Watts, an 18-year veteran of the division, had vendettas in the direction of some people, Foxx said. Totally different events he centered people just because “he may,” she said.
Native and federal laws enforcement had been investigating allegations of the workforce’s corruption as early as 2004, in step with a not too way back unveiled report from the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. That’s the equivalent yr Watts gained “Officer of the Month,” in step with courtroom filings.
But it surely certainly wasn’t until 2012 that Watts and a member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammed, had been arrested on federal bills of stealing $5,200 in authorities funds from an undercover informant. They pleaded accountable and had been sentenced to 22 and 18 months, respectively.
Whatever the convictions, native officers did not take movement for the a complete bunch of people who had been arrested by Watts. That is until one sufferer, Clarissa Glenn, pressed the issue.
“Some communities, doorways shut on us, and likewise you don’t know the place to point out,” said Clarissa Glenn, 52. She stands on the nook of East thirty seventh Avenue and South Rhodes Avenue near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties Extension the place she was as quickly as lived. Dec. 10, 2022 Max Herman, USA TODAY
Spurred by Glenn, authorized professionals with the Exoneration Mission and authorized skilled Joel Flaxman began vetting victims’ circumstances and bringing them to the Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer’s office in 2016. The office launched a whole overview of circumstances the following yr, and prosecutors have moved to vacate the convictions in batches through a patchwork of litigation and cooperation with attorneys engaged on behalf of the victims.
Since then, prosecutors have moved to dismiss on the very least 226 convictions and juvenile adjudications linked to Watts and his workforce. Collectively, the wrongful prosecutions worth 183 people sentences of 459 years in jail (not along with pretrial detention), plus 57 probation and 10 boot camp sentences.
An Illinois Courtroom of Claims select described the scandal as “in all probability probably the most staggering circumstances of police corruption” in Chicago historic previous and said “Watts and his workforce of cops ran what can solely be described as a felony enterprise correct out of the movie ‘Teaching Day.'” A Put together dinner County Circuit Courtroom select said officers’ actions resulted in “wrongful convictions.” And an Illinois Appellate Courtroom ruling detailed how “corrupt” officers fabricated a case to protected a false conviction.
About this story USA TODAY interviewed six people whose lives had been upended by Watts and his crew. In the course of securing exonerations, authorized professionals for the victims have filed plenty of paperwork alleging Watts and completely different officers fabricated circumstances. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of the paperwork, interviewed exonerees and attohawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Shawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – JaJuan Nile was a joker, a picky eater and his mother’s solely son. Rising up, he dreamed of starting a landscaping enterprise.
Nevertheless he on no account acquired the prospect. As an alternative, a run-in with a now-disgraced Chicago police officer put the 20-year-old behind bars for a felony offense he didn’t commit. It modified the course of his life, his family said.
Nile was charged with possession of cocaine in 2007 and sentenced to a couple years in jail. With a felony on his doc, he was repeatedly denied jobs and flats.
Two years up to now, merely after he acquired his certificates of innocence and landed a job, the daddy of three youthful kids was fatally shot.
“He on no account acquired to his full potential because of what occurred to him. It positively led him to do completely different points, led him to get discouraged,” his youthful sister, Shawntell Nile, instructed USA TODAY.
Nile was amongst virtually 200 people who’ve been cleared of bills tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Division workforce. It’s the largest assortment of exonerations inside the metropolis’s historic previous, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the Faculty of Chicago Laws College’s Exoneration Mission, which has represented lots of the victims.
For almost a decade, Watts and his workforce preyed on innocent people on the Ida B. Wells Properties public housing problem, the place they extorted money and planted medicine and weapons, determining their victims – largely Black and low-income residents – wouldn’t be believed, said Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx.
“He was asking for people to pay a tax, for those who’ll,” said Foxx, who has repeatedly despatched written statements and held info conferences on the misconduct allegations and the steps her office has taken to rectify the damage Watts and his workforce induced. “He really carried himself as the very best canine in that neighborhood, and people who didn’t comply had circumstances positioned on them.”
A vacant lot is seen alongside Martin Luther King Drive the place the Ida B. Wells Properties used to face in Chicago, on Dec. 10, 2022. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Watts, an 18-year veteran of the division, had vendettas in the direction of some people, Foxx said. Totally different events he centered people just because “he may,” she said.
Native and federal laws enforcement had been investigating allegations of the workforce’s corruption as early as 2004, in step with a not too way back unveiled report from the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. That’s the equivalent yr Watts gained “Officer of the Month,” in step with courtroom filings.
But it surely certainly wasn’t until 2012 that Watts and a member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammed, had been arrested on federal bills of stealing $5,200 in authorities funds from an undercover informant. They pleaded accountable and had been sentenced to 22 and 18 months, respectively.
Whatever the convictions, native officers did not take movement for the a complete bunch of people who had been arrested by Watts. That is until one sufferer, Clarissa Glenn, pressed the issue.
“Some communities, doorways shut on us, and likewise you don’t know the place to point out,” said Clarissa Glenn, 52. She stands on the nook of East thirty seventh Avenue and South Rhodes Avenue near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties Extension the place she was as quickly as lived. Dec. 10, 2022 Max Herman, USA TODAY
Spurred by Glenn, authorized professionals with the Exoneration Mission and authorized skilled Joel Flaxman began vetting victims’ circumstances and bringing them to the Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer’s office in 2016. The office launched a whole overview of circumstances the following yr, and prosecutors have moved to vacate the convictions in batches through a patchwork of litigation and cooperation with attorneys engaged on behalf of the victims.
Since then, prosecutors have moved to dismiss on the very least 226 convictions and juvenile adjudications linked to Watts and his workforce. Collectively, the wrongful prosecutions worth 183 people sentences of 459 years in jail (not along with pretrial detention), plus 57 probation and 10 boot camp sentences.
An Illinois Courtroom of Claims select described the scandal as “in all probability probably the most staggering circumstances of police corruption” in Chicago historic previous and said “Watts and his workforce of cops ran what can solely be described as a felony enterprise correct out of the movie ‘Teaching Day.'” A Put together dinner County Circuit Courtroom select said officers’ actions resulted in “wrongful convictions.” And an Illinois Appellate Courtroom ruling detailed how “corrupt” officers fabricated a case to protected a false conviction.
About this story USA TODAY interviewed six people whose lives had been upended by Watts and his crew. In the course of securing exonerations, authorized professionals for the victims have filed plenty of paperwork alleging Watts and completely different officers fabricated circumstances. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of the paperwork, interviewed exonerees and attohawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Shawntell Nile, 33, poses with {a photograph} of her late trouble, JaJuan, near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties site in Chicago the place he lived. Max Herman, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – JaJuan Nile was a joker, a picky eater and his mother’s solely son. Rising up, he dreamed of starting a landscaping enterprise.
Nevertheless he on no account acquired the prospect. As an alternative, a run-in with a now-disgraced Chicago police officer put the 20-year-old behind bars for a felony offense he didn’t commit. It modified the course of his life, his family said.
Nile was charged with possession of cocaine in 2007 and sentenced to a couple years in jail. With a felony on his doc, he was repeatedly denied jobs and flats.
Two years up to now, merely after he acquired his certificates of innocence and landed a job, the daddy of three youthful kids was fatally shot.
“He on no account acquired to his full potential because of what occurred to him. It positively led him to do completely different points, led him to get discouraged,” his youthful sister, Shawntell Nile, instructed USA TODAY.
Nile was amongst virtually 200 people who’ve been cleared of bills tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Division workforce. It’s the largest assortment of exonerations inside the metropolis’s historic previous, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the Faculty of Chicago Laws College’s Exoneration Mission, which has represented lots of the victims.
For almost a decade, Watts and his workforce preyed on innocent people on the Ida B. Wells Properties public housing problem, the place they extorted money and planted medicine and weapons, determining their victims – largely Black and low-income residents – wouldn’t be believed, said Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer Kim Foxx.
“He was asking for people to pay a tax, for those who’ll,” said Foxx, who has repeatedly despatched written statements and held info conferences on the misconduct allegations and the steps her office has taken to rectify the damage Watts and his workforce induced. “He really carried himself as the very best canine in that neighborhood, and people who didn’t comply had circumstances positioned on them.”
A vacant lot is seen alongside Martin Luther King Drive the place the Ida B. Wells Properties used to face in Chicago, on Dec. 10, 2022. Max Herman, USA TODAY
Watts, an 18-year veteran of the division, had vendettas in the direction of some people, Foxx said. Totally different events he centered people just because “he may,” she said.
Native and federal laws enforcement had been investigating allegations of the workforce’s corruption as early as 2004, in step with a not too way back unveiled report from the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. That’s the equivalent yr Watts gained “Officer of the Month,” in step with courtroom filings.
But it surely certainly wasn’t until 2012 that Watts and a member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammed, had been arrested on federal bills of stealing $5,200 in authorities funds from an undercover informant. They pleaded accountable and had been sentenced to 22 and 18 months, respectively.
Whatever the convictions, native officers did not take movement for the a complete bunch of people who had been arrested by Watts. That is until one sufferer, Clarissa Glenn, pressed the issue.
“Some communities, doorways shut on us, and likewise you don’t know the place to point out,” said Clarissa Glenn, 52. She stands on the nook of East thirty seventh Avenue and South Rhodes Avenue near the earlier Ida B. Wells Properties Extension the place she was as quickly as lived. Dec. 10, 2022 Max Herman, USA TODAY
Spurred by Glenn, authorized professionals with the Exoneration Mission and authorized skilled Joel Flaxman began vetting victims’ circumstances and bringing them to the Put together dinner County State’s Lawyer’s office in 2016. The office launched a whole overview of circumstances the following yr, and prosecutors have moved to vacate the convictions in batches through a patchwork of litigation and cooperation with attorneys engaged on behalf of the victims.
Since then, prosecutors have moved to dismiss on the very least 226 convictions and juvenile adjudications linked to Watts and his workforce. Collectively, the wrongful prosecutions worth 183 people sentences of 459 years in jail (not along with pretrial detention), plus 57 probation and 10 boot camp sentences.
An Illinois Courtroom of Claims select described the scandal as “in all probability probably the most staggering circumstances of police corruption” in Chicago historic previous and said “Watts and his workforce of cops ran what can solely be described as a felony enterprise correct out of the movie ‘Teaching Day.'” A Put together dinner County Circuit Courtroom select said officers’ actions resulted in “wrongful convictions.” And an Illinois Appellate Courtroom ruling detailed how “corrupt” officers fabricated a case to protected a false conviction.
About this story USA TODAY interviewed six people whose lives had been upended by Watts and his crew. In the course of securing exonerations, authorized professionals for the victims have filed plenty of paperwork alleging Watts and completely different officers fabricated circumstances. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of the paperwork, interviewed exonerees and atto
