Maya Wilkins
About 34 years after his original wrongful conviction, Willie Donald’s case against the city of Gary and others has been dismissed.
According to online court records, Judge Philip Simon in Hammond’s U.S. District Court, on Jan. 2, entered a dismissal order in Donald’s case against the city of Gary, estate of John E. Jelks Jr., and former Gary Police Department Officer Bruce Outlaw. The case was dismissed without prejudice, so it can be filed again.
Court records indicate that a settlement was also reached in the case. The city of Gary’s law department denied a public records request for the settlement agreement, saying the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The case’s records do not indicate when — or if — the settlement agreement will be publicly available.
In January 2025, the trial was scheduled for Feb. 24 in Hammond’s U.S. District Court. The trial was expected to last no more than two weeks, Simon previously said in court.
In a Jan. 31 telephone conference, the parties agreed to move the trial date to Nov. 10. Both parties notified the court on Oct. 30 that they reached a settlement, according to online court records, and they had until Dec. 26 to file a notice of dismissal.
Donald first filed a complaint on Jan. 24, 2017, which had nine counts, including issues with due process, conspiracy to deprive of Constitutional rights, failure to intervene, two counts of malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, respondeat superior and indemnification.
His complaint claimed that as a result of the wrongful conviction, he suffered a loss of liberty, loss of wages, attorney’s fees expended in defense of his wrongful prosecution and efforts to prove his innocence, physical injuries and emotional trauma. Donald was wrongfully convicted in a 1992 robbery and related homicide in Gary’s Glen Park neighborhood.
Donald was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder of Bernard Jimenez, and he was exonerated in January 2016, serving nearly 24 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit.
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com
