Waukegan man exonerated in 20-year-old rape case
A Waukegan man who spent more than 20 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, received an apology from Lake County prosecutors and a big step toward his freedom Monday.
Angel Gonzalez, 41, became the fifth man to be exonerated of a violent crime in recent years in Lake County after his conviction was overturned because of overwhelming DNA evidence in his favor.
Gonzalez, who was serving a 55-year prison sentence for a rape and kidnapping, hugged attorney Vanessa Potkin moments after Judge Victoria Rossetti vacated the conviction against him and approved a state motion to drop the charges.
"This is a huge victory for Angel and the whole Gonzalez family," Potkin said during a news conference after the court hearing. She called it "a day of vindication."
However, Gonzalez will not be released from prison right away. He is due to return to a downstate court on charges he damaged state-supported sink while in prison. Potkin, who works for the Innocence Project of New York, said the defense team is heading downstate to clear up that conviction "as soon as possible."
Potkin said Gonzalez's immigration visa was revoked when he was incarcerated but added attorneys will work to address that as well.
Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim said he received DNA evidence in writing Thursday showing Gonzalez could not have been involved in the 1994 attack on a then-35-year-old woman.
"If words were enough, I'd say I'm sorry," Nerheim said during the news conference. "In fact, I am sorry."
He said he has been in contact with the victim and added she is "very upset." Authorities have no suspects in that case.
Authorities said the victim was dragged from her home in the early morning hours of July 10, 1994, thrown in a car and driven to a location where she was raped in some bushes. She momentarily escaped, authorities said, but a second person grabbed her and she was raped again.
Police stopped a vehicle matching the description of the car the woman gave and detained Gonzalez, Nerheim said. The victim was brought to the traffic stop, where she identified Gonzalez as her attacker.
Gonzalez was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault resulting in great bodily harm and aggravated kidnapping in the case.
He was found guilty at trial in 1995, Nerheim said, and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Gonzalez began writing letters to the Innocence Project and asked for DNA tests to help clear his name.
Initial DNA tests were not advanced enough to clear him, Nerheim said, but the science of DNA testing eventually evolved to prove Gonzalez was not behind the attack.
Nerheim said he received oral proof from the lab Wednesday that Gonzalez's DNA was not found on the victim. He received written confirmation the following day that two DNA samples of unknown origin were discovered on the victim's clothes.
He said he immediately moved to reverse the conviction and drop the charges.
The move to immediately drop charges is opposite to what has happened in previous DNA cases in Lake County. Murder cases against Jerry Hobbs, Juan Rivera and James Edwards, and a rape conviction against Bennie Starks, all languished in Lake County courts after DNA evidence exonerated the men. All have been released from prison except Edwards, who remains behind bars on a separate conviction.
All five of the overturned convictions date back to former state's attorney Michael Waller's 22-year tenure.
Assistant State's Attorney Steven Scheller said he feels good about the conviction being overturned.
"It was important to reopen the case and look at things objectively," Scheller said.
Nerheim and Scheller said the 1994 conviction was based primarily on an identification by the victim, the vehicle match and a confession police obtained after Gonzalez spent about nine hours in a police interview that was not videotaped.
"This has been hard. (Angel) is the only brother I have," Saul Gonzalez said after the hearing. "I miss him a lot."