Civilian Office of Police Accountability report recommended CPD fire sergeant who worked under disgraced former cop Ronald Watts
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More fallout from cases connects to corrupt former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts. A newly released report said the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended an officer who worked under Watts should be fired for falsifying reports.
The report was made public by lawyers for two Watts' victims, who filed a lawsuit last year to force the city to release it, something the city fought even after the Cook County State's Attorney's office started vacating convictions tied to Watts and his crew.
The COPA report, originally issued to the Chicago Police Department in March 2021, recommended that Sgt. Alvin Jones should be fired for falsifying reports against Clarissa Glenn and Ben Baker. Jones was relieved of his police powers for several years as Watts' crew was under investigation, and he retired from the department in May.
According to the report, Watts, Jones, and other members of the tactical team Watts commanded approached Baker, an admitted drug dealer, and demanded he pay them protection money to allow him to continue selling drugs without police interference in 2004 and 2005.
When Baker refused to pay, Watts and his team arrested him on at least three separate occasions in 2004 and 2005. Glenn also was arrested alongside Baker in December 2005 as she was giving him a ride home.
After Baker and Glenn reported that their arrests were in retaliation for Baker's refusal to pay protection money, COPA's investigation found Watts planted drugs in Glenn's car, and then Watts and Jones falsified police reports, and Jones lied under oath in court proceedings in the case.
Watts' victims said they have lived with the pain of this for nearly two decades.
"Because I spoke the truth to these officers, I was punished, and I'm still being punished," Clarissa Glenn said. "Now the city of Chicago knows, which they already knew, but now it's out there, that we have been telling the truth for years and years and years."
"They finally released this report saying these allegations are true. We know these officers lied, that they put cases on people, that they sent innocent people to prison," said attorney Joel Flaxman.
Baker and Glenn ultimately were exonerated in 2016.
Since December 2016, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office has agreed to vacate more than 200 convictions tied to Watts.
The city is facing dozens of lawsuits relating to the wrongful convictions.
Watts resigned from the force before pleading guilty in 2012 to stealing from a homeless man who posed as a drug dealer as part of an undercover FBI sting. He admitted to regularly extorting money from drug dealers, and was sentenced to 22 months in prison. He has been accused of frequently planting evidence and fabricating charges.
Dozens of men and women have said Watts and his team terrorized them in or near the former Ida B. Wells housing project in Bronzeville between 2003 and 2008. Watts and his officers have been accused of planting drugs on suspects and falsifying police reports.
Prosecutors have said Watts and the officers under his command time and again planted evidence and fabricated charges in order to further their own gun and drug trade.
In some cases, Watts' victims refused to pay him money or did something that angered him; in others, there appears to be no reason for why he targeted them.
In 2017, the city's Office of Inspector General began investigating complaints of misconduct against officers under Watts' command. The OIG later handed off the investigation to the Independent Police Review Authority. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability took over that probe when it replaced IPRA in September 2017.
Since then, COPA has interviewed dozens of witnesses; including current and former officers, former residents of the Wells Homes, and former Cook County prosecutors. Investigators also combed through thousands of pages of documents, including police reports and court records.
After wrapping up that probe in March 2021, COPA delivered its findings to Police Supt. David Brown, but the city had refused to make it public until forced to do so in court.