In the two decades since Ricardo Rodriguez was convicted of murder, he has maintained his innocence.

This week, the Cook County state’s attorney agreed to drop the case against him amid allegations that a discredited police detective manipulated witnesses.

But instead of walking out of prison a free man Wednesday, Rodriguez was taken into custody by federal immigration authorities, adding a new and tragic twist to his story.

Before he was sent to prison for a 1995 murder, Rodriguez was a lawful permanent resident. His status was revoked when he was convicted, his attorneys said. Now he faces the possibility of being deported despite being freed.

Rodriguez was brought to America as a child and his family is all here, according to his sister, Maria Rodriguez-Lopez. She said the family has “a really big fear” that Rodriguez will be removed from the country.

“It would be a very big injustice for them to do that to not only my mother, but my family, who have tried so hard to prove his innocence all these years,” Rodriguez-Lopez said.

Immigration attorneys contacted by the Tribune said Rodriguez’s case sounds unique.

“A case with a conviction and then vacating a murder conviction, I haven’t heard of that,” said Erin Cobb, a vice chair on the American Immigration Lawyers Association Chicago chapter’s board.

In some ways, the ongoing saga is an only-in-Cook County tale. According to data compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations, a wrongful conviction database maintained by the University of Michigan, at least 159 people have been freed from prison after being convicted in Cook County — a staggering sum that ranks Cook County higher than almost every state for exonerations.

That figure doesn’t include Rodriguez’s case, which Cook County Judge James Obbish tossed Tuesday at prosecutors’ request.

Records also show Rodriguez has two convictions for cannabis possession.

Rodriguez’s case is the 10th related to retired Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara that has been tossed out since mid-2016 following allegations that Guevara beat suspects and improperly coerced witnesses.

Rodriguez’s uncle, Jose Lopez, said his nephew’s ordeal has been difficult for their family. Speaking in Spanish and sadly referencing Guevara’s history, Lopez said the detective has damaged so many families and nothing has happened to him.

Rodriguez’s conviction stems from a drive-by in Humboldt Park, his attorneys said. A homeless man, Rodney Kemppainen, who did neighborhood jobs for people in exchange for sleeping in garages, was killed in the shooting, near North and Cicero avenues, Rodriguez’s attorneys said.

“Nobody seems to have motive to kill him, including our client,” said Tara Thompson, an attorney representing Rodriguez.

The gunman fired at Kemppainen and another man, who survived the incident, court records show.

Guevara and his partner claimed to have received an anonymous tip pointing to Rodriguez “under highly suspicious circumstances,” according to the Exoneration Project.

Two witnesses who testified at trial had been unable to describe the murder suspect until Guevara showed them a picture of Rodriguez, the attorneys said.

Rodriguez did not confess to the killing, and there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime, the attorneys said.

One of the witnesses who testified against Rodriguez claimed he was manipulated by Guevara, according to the attorneys.

In addition to problems with the original identification of Rodriguez, the Exoneration Project found another witness who said Rodriguez was not the shooter.

A spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney said the office couldn’t meet its burden of proof in Rodriguez’s case. The spokesman said prosecutors continue reviewing Guevara investigations on a case-by-case basis.

“For decades the community has known that Detective Guevara was involved in wrongful convictions, and we are grateful that the courts are taking notice and that Kim Foxx’s office took action in this case,” Thompson said.

Guevara has repeatedly refused to testify substantively in court about those allegations.

He was forced to take the witness stand last year at a hearing for inmates Gabriel Solache and Arturo Reyes, only to deny he remembered anything substantial about the case — leading Obbish to call his testimony “bald-faced lies.”

“(Guevara) has now eliminated the possibility of being considered a credible witness in any proceeding," Obbish said in withering comments from the bench last year. "It's a troubling day."

Solache and Reyes were subsequently released from prison — but then were placed in ICE custody. Both had entered the country illegally, and deportation proceedings were initiated.

For much of Wednesday, the Rodriguez family did not know whether Ricardo Rodriguez had been picked up by ICE after being released.

Hours after his release from prison, the Department of Corrections confirmed Rodriguez had been detained by the Department of Homeland Security. Later in the day, Rodriguez was able to call his family to say he’d been taken to an ICE facility in Kankakee.

“He’s also hoping they do the right thing, and they can get him out of there,” Rodriguez-Lopez said.

Amid the anxiety over her brother’s case, she added that her family also wants to express condolences to the victim’s family.

“Justice wasn’t done for him,” she said, “or for us.”

gpratt@chicagotribune

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @royalpratt

Twitter @crepeau

RELATED

Afghan war vet deported to Mexico is 'homeless and penniless,' his Chicago family says »