DNA clears another Lake County man

Lake County prosecutors plan to exonerate a man who has spent 20 years in prison for rape and abduction, a move that would lengthen the list of the county's criminal convictions wiped away by DNA evidence.

State's Attorney Mike Nerheim said he will go to court Monday afternoon and ask a judge to throw out the conviction of Angel Gonzalez, who has been serving a 55-year sentence for a 1994 rape and abduction in Waukegan.

The crime involved two suspects, and DNA test results that arrived late last week showed the presence of bodily fluids from two men, both of whom remain unidentified, Nerheim said. The prosecutor said it was "very clear" that the evidence indicates that Gonzalez, now 41, is innocent and contradicts the confession he gave and the victim's identification of him as one of her rapists.

Gonzalez, who is incarcerated at Dixon Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois, was speechless at first when he learned last week that prosecutors planned to clear him, said Vanessa Potkin, an attorney from the Innocence Project in New York who has represented him with the help of the Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Barry Scheck, co-founder and co-director of the New York group, said Gonzalez voiced sympathy for the victim and said he hoped that the perpetrators would be caught.

Gonzalez has maintained his innocence for decades, Potkin said.

"He's obviously anxious and excited to see his family again," she said.

If Monday's court hearing proceeds as planned, Gonzalez's conviction would be the fifth major felony case to collapse in the last five years after DNA indicated Lake County authorities had put an innocent man behind bars. Gonzalez, who lived in Waukegan, was tried during the 22-year tenure of State's Attorney Michael Waller, who retired in 2012 following revelations that prosecutors had disregarded forensic evidence that contradicted their conclusions and worked to prevent men from walking free even after DNA had indicated their innocence.

It is not clear whether Gonzalez will be freed after his scheduled appearance in Lake County court. He is a Mexican national who had once obtained a visa, but that expired after he was arrested, Potkin said. Attorneys have been working to try to make sure Gonzalez can remain in the country if he's freed, Potkin said.

Deporting him upon his release would be "a huge travesty of justice," she said, since he planned to seek citizenship before he was imprisoned.

"It's only the wrongful conviction that makes his status in the country illegal at this point," Potkin said.

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DNA clears another Lake County man