Shortly after making bond on a 2003 drug case, Leonard Gipson filed a complaint with the Chicago Police Department alleging Sgt. Ronald Watts framed him because he'd refused to pay "protection" money.

It was an allegation being made with alarming frequency by those living in the South Side housing projects where Watts and his tactical team regularly patrolled. But like the others, Gipson's complaint went nowhere.

Four months later, with his drug case pending, Gipson was visiting his girlfriend in the Ida B. Wells complex when he again ran into Watts, who had been notified of the complaint against him.

"Let me see if you can bond off on this," Watts said to Gipson before handcuffing and planting 28 grams of heroin on him, Gipson alleged in a court filing. After two years in jail awaiting trial, he pleaded guilty on the advice of his attorney, who noted it was his word against the police.

On Tuesday, a court petition filed on behalf of Gipson and 14 others seeks to overturn their criminal drug convictions, alleging that Watts and his crew framed all of them between 2003 and 2008.

Watts and an officer under his command were sent to federal prison in 2013 for stealing money from a drug courier who'd been working as an FBI informant.

Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune In 2013, former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts — who had operated for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and FBI — was sentenced to 22 months on relatively minor federal charges. In 2013, former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts — who had operated for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and FBI — was sentenced to 22 months on relatively minor federal charges. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)

Since last year, the Chicago Tribune has written several front-page stories detailing the mushrooming scandal over Watts' nearly decadelong run of corruption. Five people have had their convictions thrown out, and two officers who alleged they were blackballed for trying to expose Watts' corruption years ago won a $2 million settlement to their whistleblower lawsuit.

Watts has repeatedly been accused of forcing residents and drug dealers alike to pay a "protection" tax and putting bogus cases on those who refused to play ball.

In case after case, when Watts' targets complained — either to the Police Department or in court —judges, prosecutors, and internal affairs investigators all believed the testimony of Watts and his fellow officers over their accusers, records show.

Tuesday's petition, filed in Cook County criminal court, also highlight a broken system of police discipline that allegedly protects bad officers like Watts and punishes those who tried to blow the whistle on his corruption.

Despite mounting allegations, Watts continued to operate for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state's attorney's office and FBI, according to court records. When Watts was finally caught, it was on relatively minor federal charges, and he was given a break at sentencing by a federal judge who talked tough but in the end handed him only 22 months behind bars.

Meanwhile, at least seven other officers who were part of Watts' team are still on the force, including one who has since been promoted to sergeant and another who was found by a jury earlier this year to have shot a teen in the back without justification.

Attorney Joshua Tepfer, who filed the petition Tuesday on behalf of the 15 defendants, said all of the convictions rested on the word and credibility of the arresting officers — credibility that has now been destroyed.

"I don't know how anyone can look at this and say they would still be confident putting any of these officers on the stand," Tepfer said. "They lied in court. They lied to police investigators. They fabricated police reports over and over again, backing up Watts and contesting the claims of the petitioners...Why are they still on the street making arrests?"

In an emailed statement, Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to comment specifically on the allegations in the petition but said joint investigations by the FBI and Internal Affairs were conducted and "criminal charges were brought against all individuals who were accused of wrongdoing."

"There is no tolerance for misconduct or criminal activity within the Chicago Police Department," Guglielmi said.

The Cook County state's attorney's office said in an emailed statement Tuesday night that its Conviction Integrity Unit continued to review "Watts-related matters" on a case-by-case basis and appropriate action will be taken "where we have concerns about the quality and sufficiency of the evidence."

Among the petitioners in Tuesday's filing was Lee Rainey, who complained to the police Office of Professional Standards that members of Watts' team had planted heroin on him during an arrest in May 2003.

Records included in the petition show OPS assigned Watts to investigate the complaint even though Rainey had alleged that it was Watts who directed the frame-up. In his reports, Watts claimed that Rainey could not be reached to follow up on the allegations and had "shown no interest" in signing a sworn affidavit. He closed the investigation as unfounded in February 2005, records show.

Another man, Taurus Smith, was 17 years old at the time he claimed Watts had him falsely arrested on a narcotics charge. Shortly after he bonded out, Smith's mother took him to file a complaint with OPS. The next day, Watts and two other officers confronted Smith outside a building at Ida B. Wells, where Watts made it clear that he knew the teen had dared complain, according to Smith's sworn statement in the petition.

"Watts had his service weapon on his waist and another gun in his hand," Smith said in the statement. "He said to me, 'This is grown man s—.' ... He then threatened he would plant the gun on me if I didn't leave it alone."

Smith said he again reported the incident to his mother, who told him they were going to have to move. Weeks later, they packed up and left the Ida B. Wells complex for good, he said.

Another man named in the petition, Phillip Thomas, represented himself in his two-day jury trial on heroin charges in 2007 and confronted several members of Watts' crew on the witness stand, records show.

At one point, he tried to elicit testimony that Watts and another officer, Alvin Jones, had physically abused him during the arrest.

"Did you hear the sound when they slapped me all upside the head, asking me to give people up?" Thomas asked Officer Elsworth Smith, according to a trial transcript.

"No," Smith replied.

Thomas was found guilty after the officers testified they saw him put drugs in a hole in the wall of the housing complex, records show.

Jones, who was investigated by the FBI for his role in Watts' crew but never charged, has since been promoted to sergeant in the Wentworth District, where Watts' tactical team operated, records show.