The Chicago City Council has agreed to pay $9 million to a Black man who was in prison for 25 years after being convicted of murder in 1994. The conviction came after an investigation led by a Chicago Police detective who was accused of routinely framing suspects.
Patrick Prince was convicted of first-degree murder in a 1991 shooting death of 37-year-old Edward Porter near Francisco Avenue and Flournoy Street near what is now Douglass Park. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Prince 19 at the time, says he confessed to shooting Porter during a drug-related crime after Chicago Police Detective Kriston Kato slapped, kicked and punched him while he was handcuffed to a wall. Kato would retire from the department in 2006.
Prince was granted a trial in 2017, and he was released soon after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dismissed the charges. Prince got a certificate of innocence from state officials, cited evidence from four witnesses who said they saw another man shoot Porter.
According to WTTW:
Dozens of defendants, including Prince, alleged they were beaten and framed by Kato, who is married to Cook County Criminal Judge Mary Brosnahan. Because of Kato’s relationship with Brosnahan, all Cook County judges and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx recused their offices from handling eight cases involving the former detective, transferring them to Will County.
In other action, the Finance Committee also advanced a recommendation from city lawyers to pay $950,000 to Dilan Abreu, a bricklayer who worked for the Department of Water Management who said he was forced to work in a hostile enviroment where he faced threats, harassment and retaliation.
Abreu, who is Puetro Rican, said Paul Hansen, the department’s North District superintendent, “harassed Hispanic and African-American employees with impunity, enabled by a culture of racist behavior and attitudes that permeates every level of the department,” in his lawsuit.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti independent on January 1, 1804
Link to original The Black Detour