Kim Foxx gave up the game. Will aldermen reward two men who Foxx believed were guilty?
Chicago taxpayers are about to get hit again with another massive “wrongful conviction” settlement, another enormous check written by a city already drowning in debt, and another payday for the politically connected trial lawyers who have built an entire industry around Chicago’s endless cycle of police misconduct and wrongful prosecution litigation. However, this case is different from most of the others because, this time, the former Cook County State’s Attorney herself has admitted under oath that she personally believed the men at the center of the case were guilty of what she described as “a heinous act of murder.”
Before even getting into the politics or finances surrounding the case, people should remember exactly what crime we are talking about. This was not some murky self-defense dispute or a chaotic street confrontation where facts were uncertain. According to prosecutors, Mariano Soto and his wife, Jacinta Soto, were murdered in their Bucktown apartment in 1998 in a heinous child kidnapping. Prosecutors alleged two men, along with a third co-conspirator, Adriana Mejia, entered the Sotos' home shortly after 3 a.m. on March 28, 1998, and stabbed the couple. In what was characterized as one of the most gruesome crime scenes in living memory, police investigators concluded Jacinta was stabbed nearly 40 times; her husband, Mariano, was stabbed 20 times while he slept.
Even in a city accustomed to violence, the brutality of the murders shocked homicide investigators.
That is the crime at the center of this controversy. And now Chicago taxpayers may be forced to hand over millions of dollars to men whom even Kim Foxx says she personally believed committed the crime.
If that settlement is approved, every alderman who votes in favor of it deserves to be voted out of office. Every single one. And frankly, any alderman who hides behind an abstention deserves the same political fate, because this is no longer merely a question of risk management or litigation strategy. This is about whether Chicago’s political establishment has completely abandoned the idea that justice and truth still matter.
The case involves Arturo DeLeon-Reyes and Gabriel Solache, who were convicted in 2000 based largely on confessions obtained by disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Over the years, numerous convictions associated with Guevara collapsed amid allegations of misconduct and coerced confessions, and eventually, the cases against DeLeon-Reyes and Solache unraveled as well. Their convictions were vacated, and Certificates of Innocence were ultimately granted after Kim Foxx’s office withdrew opposition to the petitions.
Ordinarily, once convictions are overturned and Certificates of Innocence are issued, the public discussion effectively ends. The defendants become “wrongfully convicted” in the public mind, lawsuits are filed, and city lawyers begin calculating how much taxpayers will ultimately have to pay. Nonetheless, then came Foxx’s deposition testimony, which blew apart the entire moral narrative surrounding this case.
Under oath, Foxx admitted that despite the exonerations, she personally believed the defendants were guilty. In one astonishing statement, she testified her office believed “the evidence suggested that the defendants had committed a heinous act of murder.”
That single sentence should stop every taxpayer in Chicago dead in their tracks.
Think carefully about what the former State’s Attorney is effectively saying. She is saying although the convictions were vacated, although the office stopped opposing Certificates of Innocence, and although taxpayers may now be forced to hand over millions of dollars, she nevertheless believes the men committed the murders. That is not a minor technicality. It is an extraordinary admission that strikes at the heart of the entire settlement process.
Why should taxpayers compensate individuals whom even the elected State’s Attorney believed were guilty?
That question almost answers itself, yet in modern Chicago politics, it somehow has become controversial to even ask it. Instead, the city has developed a system in which wrongful conviction litigation has become almost automatic. Once a conviction is overturned, the machinery immediately begins moving. Civil lawsuits are filed. Trial lawyers descend on City Hall. Activists and media organizations apply political pressure. City attorneys warn aldermen about the risk of jury verdicts. And eventually, the City Council writes another check with taxpayer money.
This process repeats itself over and over again regardless of the broader consequences to the city’s finances, the integrity of the justice system, or the public’s confidence in government institutions.
Chicago has already paid well over a billion dollars in police misconduct and wrongful conviction settlements over the years. To date, cases tied to Detective Guevara alone have reportedly cost taxpayers more than $100 million. Meanwhile, the city itself is sinking under crushing debt, exploding pension obligations, chronic deficits, and repeated credit downgrades. Residents are constantly told there is no money for basic services, no money for infrastructure, no money for public safety, and no money to relieve taxpayers. Yet somehow there is always money available for another enormous legal settlement.
The incentives here are completely backwards. Aldermen face little political risk for approving these payouts because the activist class and much of the media frame opposition as somehow anti-justice or anti-reform. The trial lawyers get rich. The political class gets to posture about compassion and accountability. And the taxpayers — the people actually funding these settlements — get treated like human ATMs.
What makes this case even more disturbing is these payouts increasingly undermine public confidence in the justice system itself. What exactly are ordinary citizens supposed to conclude from this spectacle? Convictions can be vacated, innocence can be officially declared, and taxpayers can be ordered to hand over millions of dollars even while top prosecutors privately believe the defendants committed the murders in question.
That is not justice. That is political theater financed with public money.
And the deeper people look into this case, the uglier it becomes. Foxx’s deposition reportedly revealed meetings between her office, the Exoneration Project, and law firms which concentrate in wrongful conviction cases. Now, defense attorneys are supposed to aggressively advocate for their clients. That is their role in the system. But prosecutors are supposed to represent the broader public interest, and the public interest is not served by facilitating Certificates of Innocence for people whom prosecutors themselves believe committed heinous murders.
Every case should stand or fall on its own evidence. If prosecutors truly believe someone is guilty, then they should not be helping pave the way for multi-million-dollar taxpayer settlements. The fact that this even has to be said illustrates how distorted Chicago’s political and legal culture has become.
At the same time, this controversy exposes a much larger problem with the City Council itself. For years, aldermen have routinely approved massive settlements with little scrutiny and even less accountability. Time after time, the legal department recommends a settlement, aldermen rubber-stamp the payment, and taxpayers pick up the tab. Then the same politicians act bewildered when Chicago’s financial condition continues deteriorating.
The city cannot survive indefinitely operating this way. Chicago already faces a fiscal reality that would terrify most municipalities: Enormous unfunded pension liabilities, weak credit ratings, shrinking confidence from businesses and investors, and a constant dependence on borrowing to paper over structural problems. Yet the political class continues behaving as though taxpayer money is limitless.
This case should represent a breaking point because it strips away the comforting fiction surrounding these settlements. The former State’s Attorney has effectively admitted the legal and political system produced exonerations and potential payouts disconnected from actual innocence. If aldermen still approve this settlement after hearing Foxx’s sworn testimony, then they are knowingly participating in a fraud against the taxpayers of Chicago.
There should be no excuses and no political cover for that. No alderman should be allowed to hide behind procedural arguments or claims that they “had no choice.” They do have a choice. They can vote 'No.'
And if they refuse, Chicago voters should remember every single name when election season arrives.
