Ex-Gitmo detainee could air allegations of torture by former Chicago detective

A Cook County Circuit Court judge is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday on whether to allow testimony by a former Guantánamo detainee before she rules on a request to throw out a decades-old murder confession allegedly coerced by a Chicago detective.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a terrorism suspect held for 14 years in the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, endured a shocking interrogation allegedly overseen by Richard Zuley, a Chicago detective stationed at the camp while on leave from CPD.

An Illinois commission pointed to that history in a 2023 ruling that triggered proceedings on whether Zuley helped torture a confession out of Anthony Garrett. He was convicted in the infamous murder of Dantrell Davis, a 7-year-old boy fatally shot at a North Side public housing complex in 1992.

“Slahi is a critical witness in our case,” said Garrett’s attorney, Jennifer Blagg. “So we’re seeking for the judge to create an exception to the normal rule that a person has to testify in person.”

Slahi was released to his native Mauritania and, according to Blagg, is not allowed to enter the United States.

At a hearing last month before Judge Adrienne E. Davis, a prosecutor indicated he would argue against allowing Slahi to testify. On Monday, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office wrote to WBEZ that it would not object to a Zoom connection but left in play its position on the relevance of Slahi’s testimony.

Garrett, 66, has been locked up for more than 32 years and is not scheduled for release until 2040, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Garrett became a suspect in the Cabrini-Green shooting after a relative of the slain boy said a woman named “Hollywood” told him she saw Garrett with a rifle shortly before the shooting. Based on that tip, police arrested Garrett but, according to court records, the officers were unable to verify Hollywood’s identity or interview her.

Zuley, joined by a detective commander and unidentified cops, interrogated Garrett for nearly two days. Garrett eventually signed a handwritten statement admitting to the murder. Police also brought in a man who had come forward with an alibi for Garrett. But that man, in police custody, eventually signed a statement claiming Garrett had confessed.

The police did not recover the murder weapon. Tests for gunpowder residue on Garrett’s clothes were negative, according to the Illinois Torture and Relief Commission.

Zuley and other officers said Garrett was a marksman who had spent three years in the military but had accidentally shot the boy while firing at rival gang members from a high-rise apartment building.

Garrett, speaking to the Chicago Tribune before his 1994 trial, said police subjected him to two severe beatings with a rubber hose and promised he would receive a three-year sentence if he confessed.

“They kept trying to convince me to say I did it,” Garrett told the newspaper. “One officer told me there would be more beatings unless I confessed. I was tired of them beating me. I was hurting. I signed the paper.”A motion to suppress his confession detailed the alleged torture, but Zuley and the commander denied it. The judge found them more credible and denied the motion.

The confession and Zuley’s testimony were prominent during Garrett’s trial. A jury convicted him. A judge sentenced him to 100 years.

Zuley worked as an interrogator at Guantánamo from 2002 to 2004.

He has since been repeatedly accused of coercion and abuse. The alleged victims included Slahi.

In an April 2023 report, the torture commission detailed an “overwhelming” history of “lengthy and consistent” complaints alleging psychological and physical torture by Zuley.

The commission’s 36-page report pointed to a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee inquiry that linked Zuley to Slahi’s interrogation plan, which included hooding, sensory and sleep deprivation, up to 20 hours of questioning at a time, pouring cold water on Slahi’s head, denying him the opportunity to pray, playing stress-inducing music, subjecting him to disorienting strobe lights, forcing him to bark and perform dog-like tricks, and interrogating him in a room devoid of stimuli except audio speakers. The commission cited a Guardian report that identified Zuley as the plan’s chief architect.

In Chicago, the commission added, Zuley has drawn many allegations similar to Garrett’s, including abusing and threatening suspects until they confessed to crimes and shackling suspects to police walls for hours at a time. The commission pointed to a complaint from Lee Harris that led to his exoneration in a murder case.

“That Mr. Garrett’s suppression motion was denied without the benefit of this extensive history is highly significant,” the commission found.

“None of this evidence was presented to [the judge] at the suppression hearing, and it may well have resulted in a different outcome,” the commission reported.

The commission concluded there was sufficient evidence of torture to refer Garrett’s claim for judicial review, which triggered the Cook County proceeding before Judge Davis.

Since the commission findings, three more people convicted of murder after alleged abuse by Zuley — David Wright, Lathierial Boyd and Carl Reed — have been exonerated.

In a January motion, Garrett asked Davis to suppress his confession based on “newly discovered evidence,” including Zuley’s record at Guantánamo, “that supports his long-standing assertion that his confession was false and coerced.”

Neither Zuley nor his attorneys returned WBEZ messages seeking comment.

“When [Garrett] testified his confession had been coerced, nobody would believe him, and everybody believed Detective Zuley, who was a hotshot detective solving all these high-profile cases, obtaining confessions from people within days,” said Blagg, Garrett’s attorney. “It took two decades for the truth to come out.”

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