Chicago, IL – The Leighton Courthouse in Chicago, known by most people as simply “26th and California,” is the court that handles most of Cook County’s felony cases. On October 29, a dramatic hearing took place in Courtroom 304, involving a 35-year-old case of a man tortured into a confession by a police detective from the Jon Burge gang of cops.

In 1991, 15-year-old Johnny Plummer was picked up as a suspect in a murder, taken to the Chicago Police Area Three Detective Division, and questioned for a day and a half without being allowed to see his mother. Beaten around the face and stomach, he confessed to a crime he didn’t commit. He is now 50 years old, having spent 35 years behind bars.

Plummer has always maintained he was tortured by Detectives Kenneth Boudreau and Michael Kill. For many years, he has spoken about a doctor who did an intake interview with him when he was brought to the Audy Juvenile home. The doctor then wrote Johnny’s report in his notes.

The Chicago police and the state’s attorney’s office had claimed for 35 years that no such notes existed. Plummer’s legal team, including Karl Leonard of the Exoneration Project, now have reason for optimism. In April, those medical examiner’s notes were sent to the Exoneration Project lawyers from the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Judge Tyria Walton deemed the evidence significant enough to grant a post-conviction evidentiary hearing.

Where were those intake notes?

October 29 was the fourth hearing, and the main witness was attorney Joey Mogul. Mogul represented Plummer from 2012 to 2021. She is well known as a relentless fighter for the torture survivors from the era of the Jon Burge ring of racist CPD detectives.

Attorney Leonard questioned Mogul on the stand about her extensive experience with the materials in Plummer’s case. He asked her about files gained in the ten years she represented Plummer.

Mogul testified that when she started to represent Plummer, the presiding judge, Vincent Gaughan, had granted a petition to provide materials from the public defender’s office; from the first special prosecutors, Egan and Boyle; and the common law documents or transcripts from any proceedings Plummer had been in.

The medical notes weren’t to be found in any of those files. She never saw those notes until April 2026.

How significant are the medical records?

Mogul explained that, as a result, for years it was just Plummer’s word against the police.

Leonard asked about the significance that 15-year-old Johnny was interrogated on August 18 and 19 and then spoke to the doctor on August 22.

Mogul replied, “Johnny was interrogated August 18 and 19, and then he was interviewed by the physician on August 22 , only three days later. This was prompt outcry evidence! This would have been huge had it been available.”

Leonard said, “If you had it?” And Mogul replied, “We would have cited it and attached it in a post-conviction appeal.”

Prompt outcry evidence refers to the first report made by a victim to another person shortly after the incident occurred.

Prosecution’s fear of a Brady Ruling

Special Prosecutor Myles O’Rourke then spent an equal amount of time asking questions about the proceedings in which Mogul defended Plummer, as well as those before Mogul became Plummer’s attorney.

Attorney Leonard objected repeatedly to the questioning, for example when O’Rourke asked Mogul for her recollection of an 89-page document on torture that had been submitted almost a decade ago.

The judge overruled Leonard multiple times, finally remarking to the court, “We know it’s because of the potential Brady ruling that the state is using this line of questioning.”

A Brady violation is when prosecutors fail to disclose impeaching evidence to the defense. If the court finds there was a Brady violation, it could result in awarding Plummer a new trial, or even the overturning of his conviction.

Defenders of torture cops facing multiple defeats

Seeing Johnny Plummer walk free would be a blow to Boudreau and the other Burge-era torturers, but there’s a broader crisis for the criminals in the Chicago Police Department.

Under the leadership of Mayor Brandon Johnson, on October 14, the Chicago City Council unanimously approved a $260 million settlement for 17 men who were wrongfully convicted by former Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Many of these cases have been covered for decades in the pages of Fight Back!, including Johnny Flores, Juan and Rosendo Hernandez, and Edwin Ortiz.

There has been a wave of protests led by the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) to end the practice of CPD collaboration with ICE agents since Trump launched his Midway Blitz in 2025.

Most recently, CAARPR’s Labor Committee has said that the Cook County Board of Commissioners should stop payment for special prosecutor O’Rourke’s firm for defending the Burge-era torture cops. Research by attorneys from the Exoneration Project has found that over $11 million has been paid to O’Rourke’s firm in the past 17 years to defend the likes of Boudreau.

Finally, Jasmine Smith, head of CAARPR’s Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST), said, “We are also continuing our fight to get Governor Pritzker to grant clemency to the hundreds of proven survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction who are still incarcerated in Illinois.”

“We want justice for all the wrongfully convicted!”

#ChicagoIL #IL #JohnnyPlummer #InjusticeSystem #WrongfulConviction #PoliceTorture #CFIST #CAARPR #Feature

Chicago, IL – Kenneth Boudreau was nervous. The retired Chicago Police Department (CPD) detective talks like a tough guy, but his voice sped up and got louder under questioning by Russell Ainsworth, attorney for Johnny Plummer.

Fortunately for Boudreau, he has attorneys funded by Cook County taxpayers who were ready to jump in to help him clarify his answers.

Boudreau was on the stand in a third stage hearing at the Cook County courthouse on August 26. Recently, new evidence emerged in Plummer’s 35-year-old case of wrongful conviction.

Plummer had always maintained that he was beaten into a confession the night he was picked up at age 15. He reported that beating to the first adult who wasn’t a police officer, a doctor who did an intake interview when Plummer was handed over to the Audi Home. That doctor wrote Plummer’s statement in his notes.

In all of his trials, CPD denied that such a medical record existed. After 35 years, it suddenly appeared in a standard search of Plummer’s files.

Back in 1991, the Area 3 police station where Boudreau was assigned was also where Detective Jon Burge worked. Everyone knows Burge’s name – the leader of the Midnight Crew of brutal detectives. Because of Burge and those other dirty cops, Illinois is the only state that has a Torture Commission in the legislature. At least 223 cases have been exonerated in court because they proved that the men involved had been subject to physical abuse. Boudreau was involved in the interrogation of 28 of those men – the largest number of any cop besides Burge.

Three months after Boudreau arrived there, Burge was suspended because an investigation by the Office of Professional Standards (OPS) found evidence he tortured a suspect, Andrew Wilson.

What can a timeline tell us?

Detective Kenneth Boudreau had much to tell the court about his transition from being a part of the military to serving as a police officer back in 1991. From Boudreau’s claim, there was little probability that he could have met or tortured Johnny Plummer.

Plummer, now 50 years old, has been sitting in prison since being tortured into a confession back in 1991 at age 15. That was one of the last years that the “Midnight Crew,” run by the now-deceased Jon Burge, was in full effect. Since then, the Chicago City Council voted for reparations to the survivors of Burge and the officers he commanded.

It stands to reason, then, that Boudreau would feel it necessary to distance himself from Burge. According to Boudreau, his time as a detective began in August 1991, and he had rotating partners. The detective denied having worked with or even seen Burge at Area 3. Plummer’s defense, Russell Ainsworth, highlighted that this may have been an under-exaggeration. The two had time to cross paths, as Burge’s suspension occurred in November 1991.

Furthermore, this was at the height of Burge’s legal issues. Ainsworth asked Boudreau, “You helped fundraise for Burge,” to which the detective’s defense objected. A new detective such as Boudreau would have likely reported to Jon Burge between August and November 1991, especially because Burge was the overseer of the torture that occurred in the Southside from 1972 to 1991.

Plummer has always said that Boudreau and Michael Kill were the two detectives that tortured him. Although the official police report excludes Boudreau, the detective admitted in court that it was common practice to change reports to include detectives with supporting evidence. Close followers of the torture scandals in Chicago know it was also common practice among cops to leave out of the report the name of the cop that inflicted most of the torture.

Legal fight continues for justice for Johnny Plummer

The next step in this case will be on October 29, when Joey Mogul, one of Johnny Plummer’s previous attorneys, will take the stand. Mogul says she requested his medical records during that trial some years ago. Plummer’s medical records show he reported being tortured. The judge in Plummer’s case, Tyria B. Walton, recognized that the medical records were significant, and that their exclusion from his original trial would be integral in defining how to move forward with this case.

In a June hearing, Judge Walton explained, “The Brady language is unyielding: whether the withholding was intentional or not, there was definite cause for a Brady Violation.”

Johnny’s family is hoping that proving there was a Brady Violation will lead to him being released while he continues to fight for justice.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceTorture #JohnnyPlummer #CPD #OppressedNationalities

Chicago, IL – The struggle for justice for survivors of police torture continues in Chicago. June 18 saw another defeat for Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who is notoriously known for working hand-in-glove with the Chicago Police Department.

In 1991, Johnny Plummer was just 15 years old when he was beaten into a confession for a murder he didn’t commit. His torturers were Detectives Kenneth Boudreau and Michael Kill. Boudreau has 70 convictions to his name where survivors have accused him of torture; 28 of those men have since been exonerated for successfully proving they had been forced into confessions.

Plummer’s defense has always been that he was beaten into signing a confession by Kill and Boudreau, beaten in the abdomen with fists and a flashlight. He has declared this since the first moment his family came to the Area 3 police station after his two days in police custody. When Plummer saw a doctor at the Audy Juvenile Home, he told the doctor he had been beaten into signing the false confession. The medical examiner recorded Johnny’s account in his notes and, for 35 years, Plummer has been saying that he reported his torture to the doctor.

At his multiple trials since he was wrongfully convicted, that medical report did not surface.

Attorney Karl Leonard with the Exoneration Project explained to the presiding judge for Plummer’s case, Judge Tyria B. Walton, that a special prosecutor took this case in 2022 and requested all medical records from the state’s attorney’s office. “This year (2026) we received those files and finally saw the medical report from August 22, 1991,” Leonard stated.

Judge Walton’s opening question for counsel was to identify the issue at hand before the court. In his opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Miles O’Rourke claimed there was no Brady violation in 1991 and spent time showing that in the early years of trials and appeals, Plummer and his attorneys said nothing in court about not receiving medical records.

A Brady violation is when prosecutors fail to disclose impeaching evidence to the defense.

Judge Walton had previously been giving more support to the prosecutors, but as the defense brought out more information, Judge Walton reminded the court of the three things that are needed to establish a Brady claim: One, the evidence must be favorable to the accused because it is exculpatory (tends to prove innocence). Two, the prosecution suppressed or failed to turn over the evidence, even if the suppression was unintentional. And three, the evidence was “material,” meaning there is reason to think that the outcome of the trial would have been different.

State’s Attorney O’Rourke argued a number of times that there was no Brady violation and claimed that the defense had all the medical records. In the dramatic high point of the proceeding, Judge Walton identified that there was a first subpoena filed in 1991 and a second subpoena filed in 2022, and stated that the court was advised by the petitioner that they didn’t have the medical records.

O’Rourke interjected, “We didn’t have it either.”

Judge Walton continued, “Then in 2026, the records surfaced in a file review.”

Addressing O’Rourke’s outburst, Walton explained that the Brady language is unyielding: whether the withholding was intentional or not, there was definite cause for a Brady violation.

She went on to say that with the surfacing of the medical records earlier this year, she concluded the state’s attorney’s office had already been in possession of those records, though it may not have been in the possession of this particular counsel present at court.

After this, the state stopped arguing there was no basis for a Brady finding.

In response to the developments in court, Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression stated, “When do facts matter? How can it be that something that happened 35 years ago is just now getting in front of a judge?”

Chapman recalled the words of Johnny’s mother, Jeanette Plummer, who died in May never seeing her son on this side of freedom. She had spoken out against injustice ever since he was wrongfully convicted. In 2012, at a forum on police crimes organized by the Chicago Alliance, she challenged the system of racist policing.

“How could they torture a 15-year-old child?” Chapman said, “Clearly we can’t trust the court system to bring justice. We must trust the movement to do this. Without the movement, we wouldn’t even be getting a hearing and keeping up his hopes for freedom.”

The next hearing for Johnny Plummer will be on Tuesday, June 23 at 1 p.m. at the George Leighton Courthouse (2650 S California Avenue) in room 304.

#ChicagoIL #IL #JohnnyPlummer #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Feature #NAARPR #CAARPR

Chicago, IL – Survivors of police torture, family members and supporters of Johnny Plummer packed a Cook County Courtroom on Tuesday, May 26 to witness the cross examination of the former Chicago Police Department detective who Plummer says beat him into confessing to a murder he had nothing to do with.

Plummer was 15 years old when detectives came to his house in the middle of the night to bring him in for questioning. Starting at 4 a.m., Plummer was held for two hours before being seen by detectives. Over 20 hours later, he signed a confession that was used to convict him for murder.

Plummer has been in prison for over 34 years and has maintained that he only signed the confession after being beaten by Detective Boudreau and another, Michael Kill, with fists and with a flashlight on his face and body.

In a previous trial regarding Plummer’s wrongful conviction, his lawyers had requested medical records from CPD showing that Johnny had been injured while held at Area 3. CPD responded by saying that no such records existed. Recently, those same medical records were recently sent to Plummer’s lawyers from CPD, apparently by accident, according to the lawyers.

Although the doctor who had examined Plummer and recorded the injuries is now deceased, the release of the medical records prompted the judge in Plummer’s case to allow for new evidentiary hearings to go forward. In addition to Tuesday’s hearing, the judge agreed to two more hearing dates in June.

Supporters watched as the detective, Kenneth Boudreau, was shown photos of the Area 3 Violent Crimes building that he led in the 1990s. The first of the photos depicted a holding cell called “the cage” with what appear to be Black mannequin heads with dreadlocks hanging from the wire fencing. Another photo showed two black hands in handcuffs with the phrase, “Another happy ending” written beneath them.

When Plummer’s attorney asked Boudreau if he ever objected to these props being displayed in his building, Boudreau said he never did. “In Chicago, cops have a term ‘head’ to describe suspects,” he said. “The doll heads could have been dark humor.”

Plummer’s brother, Coston Plummer, was present at the hearing and said he wants the world to know the extent of this corruption and injustice within CPD.

“They tortured so many Black and brown men for decades,” Plummer said. “This should go down as one of the darkest points in Chicago history.”

Boudreau was the head of Area 3 violent crimes in the 90s, where he worked under disgraced police commander Jon Burge to torture and wrongfully convict hundreds of Black men on the South Side of Chicago. In 2005, Boudreau, Burge and several other police detectives who worked under Burge all pled the 5th in a federal grand jury investigating claims of widespread police torture under Burge’s command.

“Boudreau has 75 people who don’t even know each other saying the exact same story about the way they were tortured by him,” Coston Plummer said. “And now he’s enjoying his life and getting a pension. I think that’s unjust.”

Leaders of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST), held a rally outside the courthouse after the proceedings, demanding freedom for Plummer and all survivors of police torture, and that Boudreau, Kill, and all the complicit CPD detectives and states attorneys be held accountable for their crimes.

“We are in a system where justice is always delayed,” said Jasmine Smith, a co-chair of CFIST, which is a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). “But we are going to continue to fight until justice will no longer be denied for any of our survivors.”

Every step of the way since he was 15, the system has failed him,” Coston Plummer said. “They can never make it whole, but they can acknowledge what has happened and let him and countless others go.”

Coston and Johnny Plummer lost their mother, Jeanette Plummer, earlier this month. Jeanette Plummer fought for her son’s freedom since he was kidnapped nearly 35 years ago. In the past ten years, she has also been active in the movement to stop police crimes and pass legislation to create an all-elected civilian police-accountability body.

In her final days, their mother was still fighting to free Johnny, Coston Plummer said. “Johnny had called her and she was dying, trying to lift up her arms to grab the phone and speak words,” he said. “She died fighting for her son and believing in her son.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #CAARPR #JohnnyPlummer #PoliceAccountability