The city of Naperville must pay $22.5 million in damages for the wrongful conviction of a Naperville man who spent 22 years in prison for the 1995 murder of his mother-in-law, a crime he was later found not to have committed, a federal jury has ruled.
William Amor’s civil rights were violated when a Naperville police officer framed him for the death of Marianne Miceli, according to the jury’s unanimous decision.
Naperville city attorney Mike DiSanto in a statement Tuesday said the city was “disappointed” by the jury’s findings. City officials will be “discussing our options, including whether to appeal,” he said.
Amor filed suit against the city and several officers in 2018 following his prison release but died in 2023 before the case went to trial.
Chicago attorney Jon Loevy, who represented Amor and later his estate in the case, called the verdict “bittersweet.”
“The biggest regret in all of this is that (William) didn’t get to live to see justice,” Loevy said. “You know, this trial really proved what happened to him. It really proved that his rights had been violated in a way that he didn’t ever fully understand. So I do regret that he didn’t get to watch the final chapter.”
In 1995, Amor was 40 years old and living in a Naperville condominium with his then-18-year-old wife and her mother, Miceli, who was partially disabled. On Sept. 10, shortly after Amor and his wife left to go to a movie, Miceli called 911 to report she was trapped by a fire. She died before firefighters could arrive.
Naperville police questioned Amor several times after the fire and he confessed three weeks later to starting the blaze after dropping a lit cigarette on a vodka-soaked newspaper before leaving, according to reports.
At his original trial, Amor’s attorneys argued that abusive, coercive questioning by Naperville police — during one session Amor was served with divorce papers filed by his wife — resulted in a false confession.
Despite that claim, a jury in 1997 found Amor guilty of first-degree murder and arson. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Although post-conviction appeals were unsuccessful, the Illinois Innocence Project took his case on in 2014 and its attorneys were able to convince a DuPage County judge that errors in the original fire investigation were significant enough that Amor should receive a new trial.
In 2018, with evidence examined using new scientific procedures not available a decade earlier, Amor was acquitted and subsequently filed suit against Naperville and its officers.
The original suit named six defendants: the city, four police officers and the estate of a deceased officer. By the time the matter went to trial, three of the defendants were released and only the city of Naperville and officers Robert Guerrieri and Michael Cross remained.
Guerrieri was found not liable by the jury Monday but Cross was guilty of obtaining an involuntary confession and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, Loevy said. Cross, the lead investigator of the 1995 fire, died in October 2022, per court documents.
Chicago Tribune archives contributed.
