CHICAGO — The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office released its “Do Not Call List” this week, publicizing the names of police officers whom prosecutors will not use as witnesses in court because of their histories of criminal misconduct or serious wrongdoing.
The public list comes about two months after The Triibe reported that 275 cops, dozens of whom are still on the force, either were barred from testifying for Cook County prosecutors or whose backgrounds had to be disclosed to defense attorneys if they were called to the stand.
Previous reporting on the issue from WGN and USA Today disclosed far fewer names and showed how prosecutors mostly communicated over email if there was a problem with an officer serving as a witness.
Making the list public is part of a series of reforms to increase public awareness and knowledge about the opaque inner workings of what is the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country, according to a statement from Foxx’s office.
“The credibility of our office and the integrity of the work that we do requires that we are as transparent as we can possibly be,” Foxx said in an interview with Block Club.
Foxx’s spokesperson added in a statement that her office also was updating its internal policies about when prosecutors must tell defense attorneys information about officers that may undermine their credibility as witnesses.
Chicago Police and the Fraternal Order of the Police, the main union representing rank-and-file officers, did not respond to requests for comment about the list.
The public “do not call” list includes 174 officers, up from the 147 on the version The Triibe obtained in May through an Illinois Freedom of Information Act request.
The majority of officers are from the Chicago Police Department, but other law enforcement agencies are also represented, from suburban Oak Park and Riverdale to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois State Police.
Reynaldo Guevara and Robert Bakker, two officers with well-documented histories of misconduct who were omitted from the previous list, were added to the new list shortly after The Triibe reported on the issue.
Dozens of people have accused Guevara of framing them in numerous murder cases over decades. Foxx’s office began investigating cases tied to Guevara in 2019 and has repeatedly petitioned courts to vacate the convictions.
Nearly 40 people had their convictions thrown out and the resulting misconduct lawsuits have cost the city tens of millions of dollars.
Bakker was suspended for 120 days last year after he lied about his ties to the Proud Boys extremist group, city officials said.
More than 20 officers were added to the list in 2023. Some of those include Adolfo Bolanos, who fatally shot a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop in 2019 and David Deleon, who faces charges for sexually abusing a minor.
Other current and former officers on both versions of the list include:
- Jason Van Dyke, who fatally shot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2015 and was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2018
- Karol Chwiesiuk, who as charged with participating in the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol
- Sgt. Ronald Watts, who pleaded guilty to stealing drug money from an FBI informant and has been routinely accused of falsifying evidence against residents of the former Ida B. Wells Homes in Bronzeville. Cook County judges have since thrown out over 200 felony convictions tied to Watts. His former team members, Kallatt Mohammed and Alvin Jones, also are on the list.
All of the officers were thoroughly vetted before the list was released, Foxx said.
“We were exhausting all of our due diligence to make sure that we were not adding people who did not belong in the list because we recognize the weight that it carries,” Foxx said.
Decades of police misconduct scandals have eroded substantial trust in the criminal legal system, Foxx’s office said.
Cook County has repeatedly logged the highest number of exonerations in the country, with 126 overturned cases in 2022 alone, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Nearly all of those overturned convictions in 2022 were tied to Watts and Guevara, according to researchers.
Adam Davidson, an assistant professor of criminal and constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said that the release of the list could have two important positive effects.
“It helps to make more salient for the public this idea that police officers are not infallible when they’re on the stand,” Davidson said. “It [also helps] to lower the burden on defense attorneys who are already overburdened to keep track of this stuff themselves.”
David B. Owens, an assistant professor of law at the University of Washington and a partner at the Chicago-based civil rights firm Loevy & Loevy, said the public list is a welcome, but not radical, change. Other prosecutors in major cities like Brooklyn’s Eric Gonzalez and Baltimore’s Marylin Mosby also have published similar lists.
“This isn’t some huge thing that’s never been heard of,” Owens said. “It is good in the sense that it’s right. But will it change the public’s perception? That is hard to say.”
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