A woman who was accused of a double slaying in Humboldt Park, pleaded guilty and served 17 years behind bars before being cleared is suing the city and several detectives.
In 1993, Madeline Mendoza pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the shooting deaths of Jimmy Cruz and Hector Reyes on the West Side the previous year. She was sentenced to 35 years but served 17 before being released in 2009.Mendoza challenged her conviction after learning that lawyers for wrongfully convicted individuals had discovered repeated misconduct by the two detectives.
"Defendants Guevara and Halvorsen conspired, confederated and agreed to fabricate a false story that plaintiff had participated in the murders," the lawsuit states. It also alleges that the detectives lied in police reports they prepared. As a direct and proximate result of the Chicago Police Department’s inadequate policies or customs for disciplining, supervising and controlling its officers and the policymakers’ failure to address these problems, the individual officer defendants engaged in misconduct," the suit states.
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