$340,000 Awarded to Man Chicago Detective Falsely Claimed had Confessed to Murder
Leonard Robinson was arrested by Chicago police for battery. That charge was eventually dropped, but while he was held in jail for two days, then charged with killing his girlfriend's three-year-old son forty-one months earlier. He remained in jail another three years until a jury found him not guilty of murder. He filed suit in state court alleging police had no probable cause to arrest him for murder and no scientific evidence or witness testimony linked him to the child's death.
Without any written or recorded proof of the matter, Detective Vincent Humphrey, who is not a homicide detective and never worked on the child's case, claimed Robinson confessed the murder to him. Robinson claimed Humphrey falsely claimed there was a confession and had inappropriate communications with his wife multiple times which he failed to log. He said Humphrey kept Robinson in jail on the bogus charge so he could hit on Robinson's wife.
During the criminal trial, the judge barred evidence regarding the alleged confession and questioned Humphrey's veracity, concluding that no such confession was ever made.
At the first civil trial, the jury hung. At a second trial which concluded on May 1, 2015, Robinson was awarded $300,000 for emotional distress and mental suffering and $40,000 for criminal attorneys' fees. He was represented by attorney Briar. T. Monico. See: Robinson v. City of Chicago, Cook Co. Court of Law, No. 08L-3323.
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