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Man exonerated in 20-year-old double homicide sues Chicago, police

CHICAGO, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A man who spent 20 years in jail for a double murder he did not commit filed suit Monday against Chicago and eight police officers in U.S. District Court.

In his lawsuit, Daniel Taylor alleges Chicago police falsified witness statements and hid the fact that he was in police custody on a disorderly conduct charge at the time the killings occurred, his attorneys said in a release.

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In November 1992, Jeffrey Lassiter and Sharon Haugabook were killed near Clarendon Park on Chicago's North Side. Taylor, then 17, was among eight young men arrested for the crime, the Chicago Tribune reported. All eight confessed and implicated one another.

Taylor was exonerated and released from prison in June.

The lawsuit alleges that Chicago police officers beat several young black men, including Taylor, while they were handcuffed to the wall of interrogation rooms and threatened some with handguns, refused access to restrooms and denied under-age suspects access to their parents or guardians for prolonged periods of time;

Police also "took advantage of" a mentally disabled 15-year-old, getting a false statement from him that implicated himself, Taylor and other youths, the law firm said.

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"He had a police time-stamped alibi," Jon Loevy, one of Taylor's attorneys, said in the release. "For every innocent man with such luck, how many hundreds or thousands more innocent men are wasting away in Illinois's prisons, but without a bullet-proof alibi?"

"This case is absolutely bone-chilling," said Locke Bowman, director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. "Here is proof that when Chicago Police are intent on solving a crime without regard to the truth and the facts, there is absolutely nothing that will stand in their way, especially if you're an African-American youngster."

One of his co-defendants, Deon Patrick, was exonerated and freed in January, the Tribune said. Two men who served their sentences and were released, Lewis Gardner and Paul Phillips, recently petitioned Cook County Circuit Court to have their convictions be vacated.

The last of the defendants in prison, Dennis Mixon, admitted he committed the crime and has insisted Taylor and the other co-defendants were innocent, the Tribune said. Charges against two others were thrown out and the eighth suspect was acquitted.

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