Former Chicago detective tied to wrongful convictions that cost millions still receives pension
CHICAGO (CBS) – The City of Chicago has forked over tens of millions of dollars in recent years to people wrongfully convicted because of actions by Chicago police.
Members of the City Council have asked whether the police officers involved in these cases are still getting their city pensions.
It's a question they haven't gotten an answer on until CBS 2 went digging. CBS 2's Political Reporter Chris Tye uncovered new details that reveal the money going to officers named in lawsuits that have cost the city huge sums of money.
Massive payouts were given to avoid litigation because of the wrongdoing of police officers decades ago. It's not a topic the city likes to talk about much.
But in one recent settlement, details against officers were so inflammatory that the city viewed a $25 million settlement as far better than going to trial in the case filed against the city and police officers by Tyrone Hood and Wayne Washington.
Both were wrongfully convicted in the 1993 murder of 19-year-old Chicago basketball standout Marshall Morgan Jr. They said their 34 years behind bars were the result of Chicago police detectives fabricating evidence and forcing others to testify against them. Washington claimed he was beaten into confessing.
But a trial, according to attorneys, would be even costlier.
"The last time the city settled a Boudreau case was 2017, there were four companion cases and we settled for a total of $30 million," said Jessica Felker, of Chicago's Law Department.
A Boudreau case refers to a case where Detective Kenneth Boudreau was named as an officer in a wrongful conviction. City Council members recently had questions about the detective.
"Kenneth Broudreau, how many cases have we paid settlement with his name being in, do you know?" asked Ald. Emma Mitts (37th).
The answer was five reverse conviction cases, and, not counting the cases of Hood and Washington, there were 10 other cases pending against the former detective.
As the hearing wrapped, Mitts asked one last question.
"He's receiving a pension?" she asked.
The response: "That's a question for the Pension Board. I can't answer that," Felker said.
Mitts asked if the city could find out that information, but it's been six weeks, and she still doesn't have an answer. So CBS 2 filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for information that revealed the retired detective who was named in over a dozen wrongful conviction cases that have cost the city tens of millions of dollars still receives a pension that will pay him $98,524 this year and has paid him over $826,000 since 2014.
While he didn't want to appear on camera for this story, CBS 2 spoke to Boudreau on the phone. He said of the city's legal counsel: "She made factual misstatements to the City Council" about the number of cases he's involved with. He did not provide a corrected figure.
When asked is he's still owed his pension, Boudreau answered, "That's preposterous. As a matter of fact, it violates the law. I have never been convicted of a crime."
In the end, that's the threshold that matters. State law says the only way a pension, like Boudreau's, can be voided is if a person is convicted of any felony "relating to ...his or her service as a police officer."
Mitts said in a statement late Monday, "This hardly seems reasonable and equally important, costs Chicago taxpayers an unfair and unacceptable amount of money."
Boudreau said he had not say over how the city handles, defends, or pays out settlements and that every person behind bars on his cases are, "trying to claim the same nonsense so he can get some money and get released as well."