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- Sep 15, 2010
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Chicago (CNN)The drug convictions of 15 men in Chicago have been thrown out after they claimed they were framed years earlier by a police sergeant, who went to prison for a related crime, and his team of officers.
The dismissal of charges against the men, who together had 18 convictions, is believed to the first-ever mass exoneration in Cook County, the nation's second most populous county.
"In these cases, we concluded, unfortunately, the police were not being truthful, and we couldn't have confidence in the integrity of their reports and their testimony, and so, in good conscience, we could not see these convictions stand," Mark Rotert of the Cook County Conviction Integrity Unit said in a news conference.
Snip*
The Good cops... Here's a good part
"If you're not gonna pay Watts, you were going to jail," Gipson recalled. "I went to jail and did 2 years and 24 months for Watts. I came home, and he put another case on me."
Gipson's attorney, Joshua Tepfer of the Exoneration Project, said officers took money from and charged dozens of people for crimes they did not commit.
"They were skimming off people, and anyone who would get in their way, they would frame them," he told CNN. "And anyone who tried to report them, they would frame them."
So congrats to those men who have been released. Now you get to have the rest of your life back and try explaining to potential employers the jail time. Aint it grand?
The dismissal of charges against the men, who together had 18 convictions, is believed to the first-ever mass exoneration in Cook County, the nation's second most populous county.
"In these cases, we concluded, unfortunately, the police were not being truthful, and we couldn't have confidence in the integrity of their reports and their testimony, and so, in good conscience, we could not see these convictions stand," Mark Rotert of the Cook County Conviction Integrity Unit said in a news conference.
Snip*
The Good cops... Here's a good part
"If you're not gonna pay Watts, you were going to jail," Gipson recalled. "I went to jail and did 2 years and 24 months for Watts. I came home, and he put another case on me."
Gipson's attorney, Joshua Tepfer of the Exoneration Project, said officers took money from and charged dozens of people for crimes they did not commit.
"They were skimming off people, and anyone who would get in their way, they would frame them," he told CNN. "And anyone who tried to report them, they would frame them."
So congrats to those men who have been released. Now you get to have the rest of your life back and try explaining to potential employers the jail time. Aint it grand?