Investigator sued along with Northwestern University by exonerated ex-inmate files $20M countersuit
Sued for $40 million last year by an exonerated ex-inmate who claims he was coerced into making a false confession and framed, a private investigator has fired back with a lawsuit of his own.
In a $20 million defamation countersuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago, private investigator Paul Ciolino names several defendants, including ex-inmate Alstory Simon; Simon’s lawyers in the $40 million suit, Terry Ekl and James Sotos; author William Crawford; and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
Ciolino alleges that the group sought to discredit him—and his fellow defendants in Simon’s suit, Northwestern University and ex-professor David Protess—“all as ‘pay back’ for their efforts and success at revealing the injustices in the Illinois criminal justice system,” according to the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.).
The Chicago Sun-Times (sub. req.) also has a story.
As detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Simon’s videotaped confession freed Anthony Porter, the man originally convicted in a 1982 double slaying, and led to Simon’s own conviction for the murders. But then Simon also was freed, after a 2014 reinvestigation by Alvarez’ office determined that a Northwestern journalism team overseen by Protess engaged in “a series of alarming tactics” that were “unacceptable by law enforcement standards” in obtaining the confession. No one has since been convicted in the case.
Ciolino’s suit contends that Alvarez, Ekl and Sotos “conspired” to get Simon released, even though they allegedly believed him guilty, and additionally says the attorney trio defamed Ciolino, Northwestern and Protess in a documentary about the case, Murder in the Park. The film suggests that Ciolino persuaded Simon to videotape a false confession in the expectation of compensation, reports the Daily Northwestern.
Ciolino also alleges in his suit that Alvarez damaged his reputation in public statements she made around the time that Simon was freed. He says that comments made by the defendants damaged his reputation and adversely affected his ability to work as a private detective.
The university and Protess did not join Ciolino in the countersuit and defendants Alvarez and Ekl described it as baseless.
However, Ciolino says he wants what he claims really happened to become known: “I spent 33 minutes of my life with Alstory Simon—that’s it, 33 minutes,” he told the Daily Northwestern. “I never talked to him again, never wrote him a letter, never visited him, never had a conversation with him. And so for the state’s attorney to say that what I did was outrageous, when it’s all on videotape, is just ludicrous.”
In a written statement, a representative of Alvarez says “the allegations have no basis or fact” and defendant attorney Terry Ekl told the Tribune he considers the suit by Ciolino “outrageous” and “frivolous,” the Tribune reports.
The articles don’t include any comment from Protess. However, in an article Protess wrote for the Huffington Post a couple of years ago, he offered his own take on the situation.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-inmate’s $40M suit against Northwestern and former journalism professor OK’d by federal judge”