One of the men who was charged in the 2011 slaying of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis has filed a federal lawsuit alleging Chicago police officers “perpetuated a wide-ranging scheme” to manufacture evidence to secure convictions in the case.
Alexander Villa’s conviction was vacated and charges were dropped in October after the Cook County state’s attorney’s office learned that there was potentially exculpatory evidence that had not been provided to the defense.
Villa’s lawsuit was filed Tuesday, naming the city of Chicago, Cook County, former prosecutors and several police officers and investigators as defendants. Villa is being represented by the Loevy and Loevy law firm.
“No one can pay Mr. Villa back for what he has been through, and Officer Lewis’s family may never find justice for their loss,” Jennifer Blagg, one of Villa’s attorneys, said in a statement. “And the City of Chicago taxpayers continue to pay for the CPD’s refusal to change a well-documented pattern of misconduct that goes back decades. Meanwhile, the CPD promotes and rewards the officers that engage in the misconduct, resulting in a never-ending cycle of wrongful convictions.”
Villa was one of three people charged in Lewis’ death. The two other men, Edgardo Colon and Tyrone Clay, filed their own lawsuits in 2023 after their charges were also dropped following allegations of misconduct by police and prosecutors.
“The defendant officers perpetuated a wide-ranging scheme to manufacture evidence to ensure the convictions of [Villa] and two other men,” Villa’s suit states.
Villa was convicted as one of the gunmen in 2019 and handed a life sentence. His lawyers ultimately unearthed emails that indicated police and prosecutors had failed to turn over key evidence on alternative suspects, as well as cellphone data that showed the three defendants weren’t at the crime scene.
The lawsuit claims police “specifically targeted [Villa] after they were unable to coerce a false confession from him.” The officers “suppressed exculpatory evidence and fabricated inculpatory evidence, all in an attempt to frame” Villa.
The officers worked together toward that aim through an investigative operation called “Operation Snake Doctor,” the suit alleges. Although the team was convened to target the Spanish Cobra street gang, the investigation amounted to a monthslong dragnet to find evidence against Villa, the suit alleges.
“Defendant officers arrested dozens of people and searched their homes to try and fabricate evidence against [Villa],” the suit states. “In addition to working to fabricate witness statements, defendant officers told these witnesses that [Villa] was the reason they had been arrested, purposely putting [Villa’s] life in danger.”
The lawsuit also alleges that prosecutors “deprived [Villa] of his constitutional right to a fair trial and his right not to be wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.”
Veteran Cook County prosecutors Nancy Adduci and Andrew Varga were pulled off Villa’s case in 2022 after Villa’s lawyers uncovered the files and data. Adduci was fired, and Varga resigned last September. Both are named as defendants in the suit.
Clifton Lewis was off-duty and working as a security guard at M&M Quick Foods in Austin the night of Dec. 29, 2011. In a scene captured on surveillance video, two masked gunmen burst into the store and opened fire. Lewis took cover behind a store counter. One of the shooters jumped over the counter, shot Lewis and took the officer’s gun.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said: “The city has not been served with the complaint and does not comment on pending litigation.”
The case against Colon, Clay and Villa dragged on for years, in part because of allegations of misconduct by detectives.
Colon was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to 84 years in prison for acting as the getaway driver, a case that rested heavily on a confession Colon said he made only after days of interrogation. His conviction was overturned in 2019 after a judge ruled detectives obtained his confession after he had repeatedly asked for a lawyer.
Clay, charged as one of the gunmen, also maintained he was coerced into a false confession. An appeals court ruled that he, too, asked for a lawyer and his IQ of 66 left him unable to understand his right to remain silent.
Clay spent nearly 12 years in jail awaiting trial before the charges were dropped. Colon spent 10 years behind bars before his conviction was vacated.
Contributing: Andy Grimm