Trevon Yates

Psychologically Coercive Interrogation by St. Clair County Sheriff’s Officers

Results in $900,000 Legal Settlement

False Confession Wrung from Innocent Teen Victim Kept Youth in Jail for Nine Months

 
BELLEVILLE, Ill. – St. Clair County government has agreed to pay $900,000 in compensation to a youth jailed for nine months after he was forced to confess to an armed robbery he did not commit.

The settlement – believed to be among the highest in the history of the county – was negotiated after the filing of federal lawsuit alleging St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department officers employed psychologically coercive interrogation tactics to wring a fabricated confession from Trevon Yates, who was a 17-year-old boy living with his parents in East St. Louis at the time of the 2013 incident.  St. Clair officials kept him in jail for more than nine months before charges were dropped. 

News release HERE.

Update 09/29/15


Lawsuit Alleges St. Clair County Sheriff's Officers Forced Innocent Teen to Falsely Confess to Armed Robbery and Spend Nine Months in Jail

East St. Louis, Ill. - St. Clair County Sheriff's Department officers employed psychologically coercive interrogation tactics to wring a fabricated confession from a 17-year-old boy and keep him in jail for more than nine months before charges were dropped, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

Naming St. Clair County and seven St. Clair County Sheriff's Department officials as defendants, the complaint alleges that the officers used coercive measures to force Trevon Yates to incriminate himself falsely and against his will in violation of his constitutional rights. The lawsuit brings claims of coercive interrogation, false arrest, civil conspiracy, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

News release HERE.

Yates v. County of St. Clair complaint

Updated - 08/28/14