Another Man Sues Former Chicago Cop Guevara & City After Being Wrongfully Imprisoned For Almost 20 Years

By Andy Thayer

Ariel Gomez was 17 years old when he was beaten and framed
By Chicago Det. Reynaldo Guevara & colleagues

CHICAGO – Ariel Gomez was a 17-year-old with no criminal record when he was beaten by notorious Chicago police officer Reynaldo Guevara and framed for a murder he did not commit. The shooting death for which Mr. Gomez was wrongly convicted occurred during celebrations after the Bulls’ fifth NBA championship in June 1997.

Ariel Gomez is one of 18 Chicagoans who were wrongly convicted by disgraced Chicago Police officer Reynaldo Guevara and the crew of Area 5 detectives he worked with. Gomez has filed a lawsuit describing gross police misconduct in his case, as well as systemic problems within the Chicago Police Department that allowed crooked cops to operate with impunity.

In the wake of last week’s news of the 18th Guevara victim’s conviction being tossed, and the filing of a civil suit by another Guevara victim, Gomez and his lawyers are calling again for an immediate criminal investigation into Detective Guevara, who has stolen 100s of years from these young Chicago men, tormenting their families and communities.

“Make no mistake: Detective Guevara chose to frame an innocent man and let a real killer go free. This lawsuit explains that witnesses came forward to say that Mr. Gomez did not commit the murder, and that they could identify the real killer,” said Jon Loevy of Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law, one of Gomez’s lawyers. “Rather than pursue these important leads that might have gotten the victim’s family some semblance of justice, Detective Guevara and his Area 5 crew chose to frame a 17-year old boy.”

“Yet again, a young man has lost his formative years to a frame-up. For the officers and the department that did this, over and over again, there has been no reckoning. The time is now for a criminal investigation into Detective Guevara.”

When questioned recently about their misconduct, including when asked about beating and framing Mr. Gomez, Detective Guevara and a number of his former Chicago police colleagues have repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves by giving truthful answers.

In addition to Mr. Loevy, Mr. Gomez is represented by Loevy & Loevy attorneys Anand Swaminathan and Steve Art. Copies of Mr. Gomez’s suit, Ariel Gomez v. Reynaldo Guevara, et al., No. 1:18-cv-03335, can be found here.

Loevy & Loevy is one of the nation’s largest civil rights law firms, and over the past decade has won more multi-million-dollar jury verdicts than any other civil rights law firm in the country.