Three men who were allegedly detained and subjected to physical and psychological abuse at Homan Square in Chicago filed suit against the city on Monday.
The suit, filed on behalf of the men by attorneys at the People's Law Office, alleges the plaintiffs were falsely arrested and detained at Homan Square in October 2013.
Home Square is a Chicago police facility on the West Side, which allegedly functions as an "off-the-books" detention and interrogation center, according to reports. Following The Guardian's initial reporting on Homan Square in February, the Chicago Police Department denied any wrongdoing at Homan Square.
In the complaint filed in federal court, the plaintiffs allege they experienced unconstitutional abuse at Homan Square, including being handcuffed for hours in dark rooms without food, water or bathroom facilities, denied access to lawyers and subjected to racial epithets and threats to them and their families, according to the complaint. One plaintiff allegedly had a knife put to his neck at the facility.
The men, Atheris Mann, Jessie Patrick, and Deanda Wilson, allege that they were falsely imprisoned for 15 months on charges of manufacturing and delivering heroin because of "fabrication and coercion of inculpatory evidence" by several officers named as defendants in the suit.
The three men were acquitted of all charges in January "when Cook County Judge William O'Brien entered a directed finding of not guilty for all of the plaintiffs," the suit says.