A man wrongfully imprisoned for more than three decades has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago, alleging police detectives framed him for a 1989 double murder in Humboldt Park.
Francisco “Frankie” Benitez, 53, was released in August after a judge vacated his murder conviction in the fatal shootings of Prudencio Cruz and William Sanchez, both 14. Cook County prosecutors dropped murder charges against Benitez in September.
He received a certificate of innocence from the state Dec. 7.
No physical evidence linked Benitez to the slayings, but detectives said he confessed to the murders. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1991 and spent more than 30 years behind bars.
Benitez, who was 18 at the time of the killings, consistently maintained his innocence, and said Dets. Jerome Bogucki and Raymond Schalk coerced a confession out of him.
The detectives are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
As the investigation into the shooting stalled, Bogucki and Schalk wrote a police report falsely identifying Benitez as a suspect after an unreliable witness identified him in a photo array, the suit states.
Benitez’s photograph was in the array only as a “filler,” or images of individuals who are not considered suspects but have similar features to the perpetrators, according to the suit.
Benitez was arrested and “kept in a locked interrogation room all night without sleep,” and Bogucki and Schalk “brandished a flashlight menacingly” during the interrogation, feeding Benitez details about the crime, the suit states.
Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Gail Feiger also interviewed Benitez during this time, but failed to document his denials and alibi, the suit alleges. Feiger is also named as a defendant along with Cook County.
After many hours of interrogation, a “scared” and “exhausted” Benitez agreed to sign a statement confessing to the crime believing that the detectives would keep their promise to let him go home if he did what they wanted, the suit states.
Feiger interviewed Benitez again and wrote out a statement that he signed, according to the suit.
“Defendant Feiger met with Defendants Bogucki and Schalk before taking plaintiff’s statement and knew the story they wanted plaintiff to say,” the suit states. “Bogucki, Schalk and Feiger worked together cooperatively and in coordination to obtain the false statement from Benitez.”
The 12-count suit claims multiple violations of Benitez’s civil rights and alleges that the city’s policies and practices abetted detectives’ framing of Benitez for the crime.
Benitez “was stripped of his young adulthood and deprived of opportunities to gain an education, to engage in meaningful labor, to develop skills and a career, and to pursue his interests and passions,” the suit states.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the city’s law department said they were unable to comment on pending litigation.
Benitez’s attorneys at the law firm of Loevy & Loevy said that since being freed Benitez has taken a security job at Soldier Field.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
