On January 15, 2025, Chicago’s City Council voted to approve a $17.5 million settlement for Thomas Sierra, who was only 19 when he was framed by notorious Reynaldo Guevara for the murder of 24-year-old Noel Andujar in 1995.
No physical evidence ever linked Sierra to Andujar’s killing, but he was convicted through the fabrications and witness manipulations of Guevara. Sierra spent more than 22 years in prison before being exonerated in 2017.
“I did all this time for something I didn’t do,” Sierra said, upon his release in 2018.
Nearly 50 people have had their cases thrown out after evidence of Guevara’s corrupt practices surfaced, most of whom were Latino and lived in or around Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The city has paid out more than $78 million in lawsuits related to Guevara, and spent additional unknown millions in taxpayer money on outside counsel defending those cases. Dozens of cases are still pending.
Guevara retired from the force in 2005, after 32 years, and continues to draw a pension on the City of Chicago. He does not deny his misconduct, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned under oath in all eight plaintiffs’ cases, and many others.
In 2022, in her ruling vacating the conviction of another Guevara victim, Judge Diana Kenworthy described Guevara’s “pattern of behavior,” saying that “he would select random men as suspects in unsolved cases” and “engaged in a pattern and practice of intimidating, threatening, and influencing witnesses in prior homicide investigations.” Other Illinois courts have called Detective Guevara “a malignant blight on the Chicago Police Department and the judicial system,” and condemned his “bald-faced lies” on the stand.
Mr. Sierra is represented by attorneys Steve Art, Anand Swaminathan, Jon Loevy, Josh Tepfer, Meg Gould, Ruth Brown, Rachel Brady, Sean Starr, and Wallace Hilke of Loevy + Loevy.
In the same vote approving Sierra’s settlement, the City Council also approved a $7.5 million settlement for Loevy clients Ben Baker and Clarissa Glenn, who were similarly framed and exonerated by Chicago police officers Ronald Watts and Alvin Jones.
“We are pleased that the City Council has approved settlements for these victims of notorious Chicago police officers Ronald Watts and Reynaldo Guevara,” says Jon Loevy, founding partner at Loevy + Loevy. “But these officers—and the officers who worked with them—caused immense damage to literally hundreds of victims. Instead of paying outside lawyers millions of dollars to defend these hundreds of cases individually, it is our hope the City will engage in a meaningful settlement process to resolve them globally, providing long overdue compensation to the victims, saving taxpayers money, and putting this shameful era behind us once and for all. Indeed, the Finance Committee asked about reaching a global resolution when it approved today’s settlement, and we believe that is the only responsible way for the City to proceed.”