Witness Recants Testimony in 1988 Murder Trial

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 5, 2011 7:00PM

In 1988 onetime Latin King Jacques Rivera was convicted of murdering Felix Valentin and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. The only witness at Rivera's trial, 12-year-old Orlando Lopez, identified Rivera in a police lineup and pointed to him from the witness stand during the trial.

Now 35 and living in Ohio, Lopez has recanted his testimony after an investigator with Northwestern Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions, which is seeking a new trial for Rivera, visited him at his home.

Lopez swore in an affidavit that he tried to notify prosecutors and police before the trial that he was mistaken after he recognized the real shooter. According to Lopez, police believed he was trying to recant for fear of gang retaliation, so Lopez stuck to his original story when the trial came. With the sworn affidavit, Cook County Judge Neera Walsh has agreed to look into granting Rivera a new trial and heard testimony from two witnesses. One of them, former detective Gillian McLaughlin, said that she never remembered Lopez coming to them to recant pointing out Rivera.

Walsh refused to allow a pastor on the stand who was ready to say that Lopez admitted to him in 1998 he fingered Rivera wrongly during a counseling session.

Lopez said in the affidavit that he's been waiting for years to get this off his chest. "My coming forward now is all about redemption."