Ben Baker Wrongful Conviction Overturned; Released from Robinson Correctional
Admin January 16, 2016Exoneration Project client Ben Baker, a Chicago resident who has spent over 10 years wrongfully imprisoned on false charges of possession, was finally released yesterday at 5:45 from Robinson Correctional after prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges. You can read a comprehensive breakdown of the egregious frame-up by the Chicago Police Department here, and view various release footage here.
Just one month after attorneys for Ben Baker filed court documents seeking to overturn his 2006 convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, the State’s Attorney’s Office has agreed to dismiss all charges against Baker.
In December 2015, Baker’s attorneys, Joshua Tepfer and Elizabeth Wang of the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School, had submitted new evidence to the court showing that Baker was framed by a corrupt group of Chicago police officers, which is exactly what Baker testified to almost a decade ago. At the time of his bench trial, Baker testified that then-Chicago police sergeant Ronald Watts and officers under his command planted drugs on him after Baker refused to pay Watts a $1,000 bribe. Noting that “there might have been a different story” if Baker’s claims were corroborated, the circuit court judge found the claim incredible and convicted Baker and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. In 2012, Watts and one member of his crew, Kallatt Mohammad, were charged with and pled guilty to a federal extortion charge for attempting to extort $5,200 from a federal informant.
FBI documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Baker’s attorneys proved that Baker’s allegations against former Chicago police sergeant Ronald Watts and members of his tactical team (Douglas Nichols, Alvin Jones, and Robert Gonzalez) were corroborated by law enforcement investigative materials available at the time of his trial but hidden from him and his attorneys. Other evidence submitted by Baker’s attorneys showed that other members of Watts’ crew who had testified against Baker at his trial were engaged in corrupt activities and under investigation by state and federal authorities.
Ben Baker is represented by Joshua Tepfer and Elizabeth Wang of the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School, as well as law students Nathan Maxwell and Regina Wood.
