The city on Tuesday asked the judge to do away with or reduce a jury's Sept. 9 verdict for Marcel Brown, who was sentenced in 2011 to 35 years in prison after police officers extracted a false confession from the then-19-year-old days after a murder in August 2008. The jury agreed with Brown on his Fifth Amendment and 14th Amendment claims.

But counsel for the city and police officer Michael Mancuso said: "Plaintiff did not prove" his Fifth Amendment claim that "defendants were responsible for the coerced confession being used against plaintiff or that defendants knew that the confession was coerced; the legality of defendants' conduct is well-established; and defendants are entitled to qualified immunity." 

On his 14th Amendment claim, they said Brown "failed to establish the police report at issue was actually and materially false or that defendants knew it to be false," and that Mancuso is "absolutely immune."

In September's verdict, the jury awarded $10 million for a coercive 34-hour interrogation during which Brown was allegedly allowed no sleep and was never told a lawyer was there to represent him, and $40 million for the seven years Brown spent in prison after his criminal bench trial and conviction.

The jury also awarded $50,000 in punitive damages against Mancuso, the sole witness on whose testimony Brown was convicted. At the underlying trial, Mancuso read the police report of Brown's supposed confession, which was riddled with lies and omissions, Brown's lawyers said.

The underlying criminal bench trial took place from 2009 through 2011 under Cook County Judge Thomas Gainer. Brown's conviction was vacated on June 19, 2018. Cook County prosecutors then abandoned the case, and Brown was granted a certificate of innocence on June 7, 2019.

Brown's lawyers filed their civil complaint on June 18, 2019.

Brown's ordeal began with the discovery on the morning of Aug. 31, 2008, of the body of a young man named Paris Jackson in Chicago's Amundsen Park. Jackson's body bore bullet wounds, but little physical evidence was present other than a few drops of possible blood that was not tested, according to Brown's lawyers.

Brown had driven two of his cousins to the park the night before, including one named RJ, who fired shots after being shot at, although no shots hit anyone, according to Brown's lawyers.

Using coerced, changed, and pressured testimony from people who were in the park the night before Jackson's body was found, officers fabricated a case that RJ committed murder, according to Brown's complaint.

The officers then allegedly extracted false testimony from Brown so they could charge him with first-degree murder by showing he knew ahead of time that RJ had a gun and planned to use it, the complaint said.

About four days after the shooting, Brown was arrested and taken to a room where he was held for 34 hours, his lawyers said.

"For a day and a half, plaintiff lived in a windowless, barren room behind a locked door while he was subjected to tag-team questioning," his lawyers said in the complaint. He asked repeatedly to be permitted to call his mother, but was not allowed to do so, the complaint said, and he was allegedly deprived of sleep.

When Brown's family brought a lawyer to the station, officers lied and told the lawyer Brown didn't want to talk to him, his counsel said, and didn't tell Brown the lawyer was present.

In the police report created after the interrogation, according to Brown's complaint, police left out the information that they had lied to his lawyer and said Brown had stated unequivocally he knew RJ had a gun beforehand.

Police said Brown was driving the car RJ showed up in, according to the complaint, but Brown's lawyers said he did not leave the car, join RJ in the park, or play any part in the exchange of shots.

"Plaintiff did not know that RJ was armed that night. Plaintiff did not enter the park in the company of RJ. Plaintiff had no involvement in RJ's decision to shoot a gun on the night of August 30," Brown's lawyers said.

They also said RJ had nothing to do with Jackson's death. RJ did shoot at Jackson, the lawyers said, but eventually fled, and Jackson was "alive and well" when he did so. Officers responded after those shots were fired, and Jackson's body was not present, Brown's lawyers said.

Brown's counsel said a key witness, Eugene Stanciel, told officers RJ did not shoot Jackson, but changed that story when pressured by detectives.

Officers also allegedly hid exculpatory evidence in the form of statements by witness Rufus McGee, who "told the defendant officers in an interview on or about August 31, 2008, that RJ and plaintiff were not responsible for Paris's death. The defendant officers refused to accept this information and pressured Mr. McGee to name RJ."

Brown's counsel said in their complaint that what happened to him was part of a pattern in Chicago that created "scores of false confessions and wrongful convictions." 

That pattern included hiding people being questioned from their family and lawyers, and exploiting the well known suggestibility of young people, Brown's counsel said.

Representatives for the parties were not immediately available for comment. 

Brown is represented by Jonathan I. Loevy and Locke Bowman III of Loevy & Loevy.

The city of Chicago is represented by James Fieweger and Ashni Gandhi of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP.

The case is Brown v. Chicago, case number 1:19-cv-04082, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

--Editing by Peter Rozovsky.