Private eye files $25M defamation suit in Porter case

A private investigator who played a central role in freeing Death Row inmate Anthony Porter in 1999 filed a $25 million counter-lawsuit Wednesday saying he has since been defamed.

Paul Ciolino famously worked with Northwestern University professor David Protess and his journalism students to free Porter, who had been convicted of a 1982 double murder on the South Side.

In 1999, Ciolino and a Northwestern student traveled to Milwaukee to interview Alstory Simon, whom the Northwestern team settled on as the key suspect after their own investigation.

Ciolino later told a grand jury he obtained Simon's videotaped confession to the murders when he showed him a video of one of Ciolino's employees, who had posed as a witness who falsely said he saw Simon commit the shootings.

In 2014, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez conducted an investigation that concluded Simon was railroaded, and he was freed from prison.

See the Chicago Sun-Times for the full story.