19 sue City of Chicago over alleged wrongful conviction, framing by Ronald Watts

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The City of Chicago is facing federal lawsuits from 19 people who were wrongly convicted after they were framed by former CPD Sergeant Ronald Watts.

Deon Willis was thrown in jail on bogus drug charges twice.

"Locked me up for all these drugs. I didn't even get a chance to see my daughter born. I was locked up. I couldn't see my daughter born. I was locked up. They wouldn't let me see my daughter born," said Willis.

Willis's story is echoed by dozens of others who were terrorized by corrupt Chicago Police Sergeant Ronald Watts and his Southside crew.

Attorney Jon Loevy pointed specifically to an alleged Code of Silence in the Chicago Police department.

"This case illustrates what the code of silence is," Loevy said. "These officers were stealing, robbing, and ruining people's lives and other officers saw it and nobody did anything about it."

Octayvia McDonald said she was 17 years old and pregnant when she was framed by Watts and thrown in jail.

"I never even had time to bond with my family, my child's father, due to the fact of me being pregnant... it kind of made it hard for my life," McDonald said.

"I suppose the city could try to defend this, but to have multiple police officers sent to federal prison for doing this is very important to our case," Loevy said.