Prosecutor pushes to exclude ex-Gitmo detainee’s torture allegations against former Chicago detective

A Cook County prosecutor argued Wednesday that testimony by a terrorism suspect who alleges a Chicago detective oversaw his Guantánamo torture is not relevant to a North Side murder confession allegedly coerced by that same cop. Assistant State’s Attorney William Meyer argued against including Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s testimony in an upcoming evidentiary hearing on whether former Detective Richard Zuley tortured a confession out of Anthony Garrett, convicted of murdering 7-year-old Dantrell Davis in an infamous 1992 shooting at the Cabrini-Green public housing complex. “It was in a time of war and I think that should be taken into account,” argued Meyer about the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying Slahi “was a person who was accused of aiding and abetting our enemies.

” Wednesday’s proceeding stemmed from a 2023 referral by the Illinois Torture and Relief Commission that detailed an “overwhelming” history of “lengthy and consistent” complaints alleging psychological and physical torture by Zuley, who was hired in 1970 and worked more than three decades for CPD. In Garrett’s case, Zuley, joined by a detective commander and unidentified cops, interrogated him for nearly two days. Garrett eventually signed a handwritten statement admitting to Dantrell’s murder.



In 1994, a jury convicted Garrett and a judge sentenced him to 100 years in prison. Garrett, 66, has now been locked up for more than 32 years. He is not scheduled for release until 2040, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Garrett’s attorney, Jennifer Blagg, is trying to show a “pattern and practice” of Zuley coercing confessions. Slahi, 54, wrote a bestselling memoir about his torture at the U.S.

detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. An abandoned detention facility used for al-Qaida and Taliban militants who were captured after the Sept. 11 attacks at Guantánamo Bay U.

S. Naval Base, Cuba. Charles Dharapak/AP The detective, while on leave from CPD, allegedly supervised “enhanced interrogations” of Slahi that included beatings, sensory deprivation, and threats to bring his mother to the camp, implying she would be raped.

On Wednesday, however, Circuit Court Judge Adrienne E. Davis questioned Blagg about the timeline and pointed out Slahi’s torture — which began in 2003, when he met Zuley — took place 10 years after Garrett’s murder confession. Meyer, the prosecutor, amplified that concern and claimed the Guantánamo interrogation methods were not similar to what Garrett alleges he faced.

Unlike Slahi’s interrogation, there is no proof that Garrett’s physically injured him, Meyer said. “I think the relevance is suspect,” Meyer said. Blagg conceded the length of time separating incidents is important for determining a pattern.

But she listed a string of Chicago murder cases between 1987 and 2003, when Slahi’s interrogation took place, in which a suspect alleged coercion involving Zuley. CPD often assigned Zuley to “high-profile cases where he comes in and saves the day and gets a confession,” Blagg said. Almost every case, Blagg said, included a “contemporaneous outcry” such as Garrett’s in which a defendant claimed the confession was coerced and filed a motion to suppress it.

Another tactic across many Zuley interrogations, including Garrett’s, was shackling the suspect to an eyebolt for extended periods, Blagg said. Zuley also frequently played good-cop-bad-cop, according to Blagg, who listed cases in which he left the interrogation room before other men allegedly carried out physical abuse. Garrett complained of two unidentified men in sports jerseys severely beating him with a rubber hose.

“All of this leads to Slahi at Guantánamo Bay,” Blagg said. “You see the same pattern, except it’s on steroids. “It really shows the culmination of a sadistic mind,” she said of Zuley.

“It was sick, sick, sick stuff.” Judges in recent years have vacated at least four murder convictions involving Zuley. The exonerees include Lathierial Boyd, Lee Harris, Carl Reed and David Wright.

Blagg read aloud some Zuley testimony from Garrett’s 1994 trial: “In my experience as a detective, I have never had anybody confess to a crime that he didn’t do.” “We believe the opposite is true,” Blagg said. “He coerced false confessions for decades.

” Slahi, after 14 years at Guantánamo, was released to his native Mauritania in 2016. He now lives in Amsterdam and is not allowed to enter the United States, according to Blagg. Davis, the judge, said she needed time to decide on the relevance of Slahi’s testimony.

She set the next court date for May 22. She has not scheduled the evidentiary hearing stemming from the torture commission referral. Zuley and his attorneys have not returned WBEZ messages.

Chip Mitchell reports for WBEZ Chicago on policing, public safety and public health. Follow him at Bluesky and X . Contact him at cmitchell@wbez.

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