Alstory Simon files $40M lawsuit against Northwestern, others

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Alstory Simon had his murder conviction overturned, but now, he is filing a $40 million lawsuit claiming he was the victim of another injustice from an overzealous Northwestern University journalism class.

When Simon's conviction was vacated, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said that the case was deeply corroded and corrupted by tactics that may have been criminal, but she couldn't pursue that because of the state of limitations had passed.

READ: Alstory Simon's lawsuit

Now, there is a civil case against a former professor, a private investigator, a defense attorney and Northwestern University, asking for $40 million in damages.

Three and a half months ago, Simon was set free after doing 16 years for a 1982 Chicago double murder.

His attorneys contend he was bull rushed into a coerced confession engineered by former Northwestern University Journalism Professor David Protess. They contend Protess' mission was to win freedom at any cost for Anthony Porter, who had earlier been on death row for the same crime.

"There is no sweeter moment in my professional life than that," Protess said in 1999.

"The reason we brought the suit is to bring him some compensation and shed more light on the tactics to frame him," said Terry Ekl, Simon's attorney.

The tactics, Ekl claims, included "fabricated evidence", an "actor" who claimed to be a witness, a private-eye who "impersonated a police officer" and a group of journalism students used as "pawns".

"It wasn't a journalism class. It was an investigation agency that operated with no rules, no boundaries, no oversight, no scrutiny," said Jim Sotos, Simon's attorney.

Simon's attorneys contend that Protess, in previous cases, followed a pattern and practice of promising money from book and movie rights if his subjects followed his story line; that he encouraged his female students "to sexually flirt with prisoners and witnesses" to achieve their goals; that Medill students "misrepresented themselves as attorneys", and in one case "impersonated a United States Census taker."

Simon's attorneys contend that higher-ups at Northwestern had been told about it, but made no effort to stop it.

On Tuesday afternoon, the University said it would have no comment beyond a written statement: "Northwestern denies all wrongdoing in this matter and looks forward to being vindicated in a court of law."

"As a result of Protess' work, the university profited from his work and that was part of the motivation for letting him run wild," Ekl said.

Protess left Northwestern four years ago. The university says he retired, but his departure came after the state's attorney's office had investigated his behavior and that of his students in another criminal case. In that instance, Northwestern concluded that Protess had knowingly misrepresented the facts.

ABC7 was unable to reach Protess for comment.