Son of inmate in exoneration case losing faith in courts

             After his experiences with the criminal justice system, Armando Serrano Jr. grew up suspicious of how the system functions, he said. After his father’s alleged wrongful conviction more than 20 years ago, Serrano's trust in the Cook County court's credibility is shaken. This has led him to experience a different relationship with his father than other children growing up.

Serrano has never seen his father in person wearing anything but a prison jump suit, he said. He has only seen his father wear casual clothes in pictures. They've never played catch and they've never eaten dinner at a table together. For Serrano’s whole life, his father has been incarcerated in various Illinois prisons.

“You kinda see what people are actually capable of doing. It makes you think and wonder how many people are going through the same situation you are,” said Serrano.

In 1994, his father, Armando Serrano Sr., was convicted of murdering a Humboldt Park man, according to court documents. The only evidence against Serrano Sr. and his codefendant was their supposed confession to another inmate, who recanted his statement in 2004. No eyewitnesses or physical evidence was presented in the case against Serrano Sr. and his codefendant, according to documents.  

The police officer who arrested his father, Det. Reynaldo Guevara, is currently under investigation and accused of procuring false testimonies from multiple people and rigging line-ups in many cases involving the Area 5 section of the Chicago Police Department, according to reports. This has affected Serrano’s opinion of police as he has grown up.

“You grow and you are taught to believe they are there to serve and protect you but, then when you are in a situation like this it kinda makes you think again,” said Serrano. “Not to say all police people are bad because there are a lot of good ones but, then there are a few rotten apples in a bunch.”

After his father was arrested, Serrano moved in with his grandparents in a house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. His father’s parents helped raise him and his younger brother Joel mostly all his life, he said. Serrano still lives with them today and works retail at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Chicago, he said.

He has lived his life only interacting with his father under close watch of security guards, sneaking in hugs and physical contact when the guards turn their back, he said. Although under close supervision, Serrano has little problem speaking to his father in the visiting room, he said. It has become a natural thing for him at this point in his life.

The first time Serrano went to a court case was in 2009 when he was 17-years-old, he said. It is hard for him to watch prosecutors point their fingers at his father and make statements about his conviction. In one of the trial hearings a prosecutor referred to his father to the judge as an animal.

Serrano keep’s his spirits high though. Soon, he believes, his father will be freed and cleared of his conviction. Serrano hopes to go to a Chicago Blackhawks hockey game with his father if the court clears him, he said. An event that father and son talk about on their weekly phone calls, he said.

“I just get tired of the whole, ‘we have to wait for him to call.’ It sucks that we have to wait for him to call. We can’t just reach out whenever,” he said.  

His father’s next court case is on Oct. 16 at the courthouse at 26 Street and California Avenue.