In March 2025, Tyrece Williams didn’t become the first exoneree in a case involving corrupt former Chicago Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Or the fifth. Or the fifteenth. He was the fiftieth. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Guevara ran a widespread corruption racket for years ... pinning false murder cases on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for protection money and taking payments from gang members to change the outcomes of police lineups.” So, who’s held Guevara accountable?
Guevara hasn’t shown interest in accountability. When asked questions in court about framing suspects, falsifying police reports, and coercing witnesses, he took the Fifth over 200 times. His financial cost to Chicago taxpayers is nearly $100 million.
To have Tyrece Williams identified in a lineup, Guevara punched and threatened a teenage witness. Other career highlights include physically assaulting teenage girls, using anti-Black slurs, and making suspects pay $20,000 to avoid jail time for crimes they hadn’t committed. Still, the force and other officials, like judges, continued to protect him.
In the end, a group of Chicago women whose loved ones had been victimized by Guevara, pored over hundreds of cases to expose Guevara’s pattern of behavior, and then encouraged other community members to come forward. Now, they’re known as the Comité Exigimos Justicia.
The dismantling of systems that enable authorities like Guevara becomes possible when we organize and struggle together. That’s an option that Guevara’s victims deserve.