A Cook County prosecutor who was fired after lying on the witness stand earlier this month is alleged to have destroyed evidence on his phone in a case that ultimately ended in the dismissal of charges against Jackie Wilson, who has long maintained that he was tortured by police into falsely confessing to playing a role in the 1982 shooting deaths of two Chicago cops.
The latest trial was the third in which Wilson has been tried in connection with the deaths. His first conviction was thrown out on appeal. At a retrial in 1989, lead prosecutor Nick Trutenko oversaw a case that resulted in Wilson being convicted in the death of Officer Richard O’Brien but acquitted in the death of Officer William Fahey.
In 2018, a Cook County judge threw out that conviction, suppressed the use of Wilson’s confession and granted him another trial, which lasted two weeks and concluded Oct. 2.
Special prosecutors handled the case for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office — standard procedure in cases stemming from torture at the hands of notorious Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
Trutenko was called Oct. 1 to testify about reputed international con man William Coleman, a key witness in the 1989 trial who could not be located, or even proven to be alive, until Trutenko dropped a bombshell in court when he testified that he’d been in touch with Coleman in recent days.
Trutenko said special prosecutors hadn’t discussed Coleman with him. Special prosecutors told Judge William Hooks that was a lie, and they had discussed Coleman.
Trutenko and Coleman became close after the 1989 trial and Coleman even flew Trutenko to England to become godfather to his daughter — information that was dug up by a private investigator hired by Wilson’s attorneys.
After Trutenko’s testimony, charges against Wilson were dropped and Trutenko was ordered by the court to preserve information on his phone.
However, Trutenko later erased the contents of his phone, according to a motion filed Monday seeking an independent investigation into what Wilson’s attorney, Elliot Slosar, claims is an attempted coverup by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The state’s attorney’s office was made aware of the court’s preservation order Oct. 1 but did not retrieve the cell phone until Oct. 6, according to the motion.
“By failing to immediately retrieve Trutenko’s possessions, the CCSAO gave their longtime former employee nearly a week to destroy evidence in this case,” Slosar claims in the motion.
“The pattern of behavior with regard to Trutenko and covering up his misdeeds is consistent with the conduct that caused Jackie Wilson’s wrongful convictions in the first place,” Slosar told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Slosar also alleges that Trutenko orchestrated false testimony from Coleman in Wilson’s 1989 trial in exchange for help in reducing drug charges against Coleman that were pending at the time.
A spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not immediately return a request for comment.
Wilson, who was released from prison on bond in 2018 to await his third trial after 36 years behind bars, cannot be tried again.
“He can’t be tried a fourth time because the case was dismissed with prejudice; Jackie Wilson was exonerated,” Slosar said.
Slosar on Monday also filed a motion seeking a certificate of innocence for Wilson.
