A Chicago man who spent more than a decade in prison on a drug conviction has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was framed by a corrupt city police sergeant. Ben Baker was freed earlier this year after he petitioned for a new trial and Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges against him.
The case was dismissed because the primary witness in the case, former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts, was convicted in 2013 of extorting protection payoffs from drug dealers.
43-year-old Baker has long contended Watts planted drugs on him during a March 2005 arrest on the city's South Side.
Watts and his partner, Kallatt Mohammed, were caught in a 2011 FBI sting attempting to steal from an FBI informant $5,200 of what they believed was drug money.
