A Cook County Circuit Court judge has dropped Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard and other top police officials as defendants in a lawsuit stemming from the Ryan Harris case, in which two young boys were charged but later cleared of the 11-year-old girl’s murder.
Judge Mary Mulhern ruled in an order issued Thursday that Hillard and the other officials did not play direct roles in the investigation, had immunity or the statute of limitations had run out.
James Cassidy and Allen Nathaniel, the detectives who worked on the case and claimed the boys, then ages 7 and 8, had confessed to killing the Harris girl, remain as defendants in the lawsuit, although the boys’ attorneys must draft their complaints again.
Cassidy and Nathaniel are accused of false arrest, malicious prosecution and the wrongful infliction of emotional distress.
“The case isn’t gone, but our thinking all along was that Hillard and the command officers never belonged in the case,” said Brian Crowe, a private attorney who is working as a special assistant corporation counsel for the city and represents the command officials. “I’m looking forward to seeing the new complaint, which I assume they’re going to file.”
Attorneys Flint Taylor and R. Eugene Pincham have 28 days to file a new complaint in court, according to Mulhern’s order.
“We have to draft another complaint, that’s all,” said Pincham, who represents the older boy.
Dave Bayless, a spokesman for the Police Department, said Hillard was pleased. “And it’s our hope that this case, when it is complete, will wind up with a similar result,” he added.
Mulhern also dropped from the lawsuit retired Deputy Supt. of Investigative Services Michael Malone, retired Chief of Detectives Anthony Ivanjack and John Frangella, then deputy chief of detectives.
The lawsuit stems from the August 1998 arrest of the two boys in the murder of Harris. The boys were exonerated one month later, after the Illinois State Police crime lab found semen on the girl’s underwear.
In May 1999, a Cook County grand jury indicted Floyd Durr for murder in the girl’s death. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Hillard and the other command officials, according to the lawsuit, knew or should have known there was no evidence to charge the boys. Lawyers for the boys have alleged their confessions were coerced.
