WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Chicago Police Department (CPD) physically brutalized Ricardo Pabon for three days to confess to a murder that he did not commit, Ricardo’s mother and aunt, Sharon Pabon and Felicitaz Cardena, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
Cardena explained that CPD took up to eight persons suspected of being involved in the crime to the Homan Square interrogation “black site,” where some of them were charged and others were let go.
“Those that were let go were forced and threatened into the collaboration of the forced and coerced confessions,” Cardena said. “They were told, all your stories must match or you can’t leave, or we’ll take your kids away from you.”
She added that Ricardo’s trial began nearly five years later, lasted two weeks and ended in a mistrial.
“He was at the county [jail] for nine years before he agreed to a plea bargain, just to end it all and move on,” Cardena said.
Sharon Pabon explained her son was handcuffed during the interrogation and had no access to an attorney or a phone after being driven to the Homan Square site in an unmarked police vehicle.
Pabon noted that she wants all CPD officers that participated in the forced interrogations stripped of their badges and the Homan Square facility shut down.
Church said that he too was denied access to a phone and a lawyer.
In response to Church’s whistleblowing, protests have been held across the United States, calling on the authorities to conduct public inspection of the Homan Square “black site” and to sanction the supervising CPD officers at the site.
CPD provided Sputnik earlier a statement that it abides by all laws, rules and regulations pertaining to interrogations. CPD also provided Sputnik a Homan Square Fact Sheet, which details facts and quotes from positive stories about the site.
