TJ Jimenez, Who Got Millions For Wrongful Conviction, Faces New Charges For Jail Fight

T.J. Jimenez
T.J. Jimenez Chicago Sun-Times via Cook County Sheriff’s office
T.J. Jimenez
T.J. Jimenez Chicago Sun-Times via Cook County Sheriff’s office

TJ Jimenez, Who Got Millions For Wrongful Conviction, Faces New Charges For Jail Fight

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

Former Chicago gang leader Thaddeus Jimenez — who got $25 million from the city because he was wrongly arrested for murder when he was 13 years old — is facing a new felony charge for his alleged role in a jail fight last month.

Jimenez spent 16 years in prison before he was freed in 2009. Prosecutors say Jimenez then spent his millions to fund a gang war on the city’s West Side. He is currently back behind bars awaiting trial for a 2015 shooting.

Listen to Season One of Motive, a true crime podcast from WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Jimenez has now been charged with mob action for allegedly joining a Jan. 8 fight in the dayroom of a maximum security division in the Cook County Jail, said Cook County Sheriff spokesman Joseph Ryan.

He said the fight resulted in “non-serious injuries, including bruises and cuts, to several of the participants.”

Jimenez is due in court Friday for the latest charges.

WBEZ, in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times, chronicled Jimenez’s story in the first season of its serial podcast Motive.

Patrick Smith is a reporter on WBEZ’s Criminal Justice Desk. Follow him @pksmid. Email him at psmith@wbez.org.