Year after winning bid for new trial, Gerald Reed continues waiting for ruling on double murder

Gerald Reed’s wait for a ruling on whether he has to stand trial again for a 1990 double-murder will stretch into 2020, a Cook County judge said Friday.

Reed, who was granted a new trial nearly a year ago based on his claim that he was beaten by underlings of former Area 2 Cmdr. Jon Burge, has been jailed since his arrest for the 1990 murder of Pamela Powers and Willie Williams.

Judge Thomas Gainer overturned Reed’s conviction in December 2018.

Special Prosecutor Robert Milan said he would still pursue the case against Reed, despite the suppression of Reed’s forced confession and the death of several key witnesses, including Det. Michael Kill, whom Reed claims beat him. Reed’s claims of abuse were supported by medical records discovered by Reed’s attorneys in 2012, showing that he complained of pain from injuries sustained when he said he was kicked by Kill and Det. Victor Breska, dislodging a metal rod in his leg.

After Reed was granted a new trial, Reed’s mother told reporters she was outlining the menu for her son’s first Christmas dinner outside prison in nearly three decades.

But months have passed since Judge Thomas Hennelly — who took over Reed’s case after Gainer retired — was given defense attorneys’ motions to dismiss the charges. Hennelly, last month, said he had only recently received full copies of transcripts tied to in the case.

Reed’s attorneys also have asked to have the state’s attorney’s office take over the case from Milan, who had worked as a Cook County prosecutor under former State’s Attorney Richard Devine. A judge in 2002 ruled that the state’s attorney office had a potential conflict of interest, because Devine’s former law firm had represented Burge and the city in civil lawsuits. A string of private attorneys have served as special prosecutors in Burge-related cases ever since the ruling.

Chief Criminal Courts Judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr. ruled that Milan could remain, in part because Martin worried that assigning the case to a new prosecutor would further delay the ruling in Reed’s case. Martin, however, said other Burge-related cases might be turned over to the state’s attorney’s office since current top prosecutor Kim Foxx has no connections to Burge.