Off Duty | The Guardian Investigates · The Guardian

Off Duty: The Interrogations | Ep 2

March 18, 2026·32 min·2 clips

Melvin DeYoung describes losing his vision and fearing police were trying to kill him during an interrogation.

1. Off Duty: The Interrogations examines how four men were questioned after Chicago Officer Clifton Lewis was murdered in January 2012. 2. Guardian investigative reporter Melissa Segura interviews Edgardo Colon, Alex Villa, Tyrone Clay, and Melvin DeYoung about their arrests and interrogations. 3. The episode asks why three men confessed to killing Clifton Lewis within 72 hours and later said the confessions were false. 4. A $10,000 reward and intense pressure to arrest suspects followed Lewis's killing, while tip-line calls initially pointed toward the Four Corner Hustlers. 5. Police instead focused on Spanish Cobras after a later tip, even though the mini-mart was in Four Corner Hustlers territory. 6. Edgardo Colon says officers stopped him over a gun on January 3, 2012, then questioned him about Lewis rather than the weapon. 7. Colon says detectives supplied a theory involving Alex Villa, Tyrone Clay, and Melvin DeYoung and repeatedly asked him to accept it. 8. Police records linked Alex Villa to a silver Dodge Intrepid seen near the mini-mart, although investigators had previously considered a Cobra presence in rival territory unlikely. 9. Colon says officers threatened his daughter's safety and his mother's subsidized housing while he remained in a small interrogation room. 10. Tyrone Clay says police entered a friend's home before dawn, arrested him and Villa, and ignored his claim that NBA 2K preserved his alibi. 11. Melvin DeYoung tells Segura that he was a type 1 diabetic who needed insulin five times daily while officers questioned him. 12. DeYoung says his blood sugar deteriorated, sending him to hospital three times before he gave investigators a statement. 13. Alex Villa says officers beat him during the arrest, questioned him about a gun, and later returned him to interrogation after a hospital visit. 14. Monica Rivera testified that police slapped her and threatened her while they questioned her about Villa. 15. A judge approved an additional 24 hours for Colon's detention, according to a document, after he had spent nearly 48 hours in custody. 16. Colon says detectives corrected his account of the alleged getaway route until his statement matched details they expected. 17. Segura uses partial interrogation recordings and transcripts because Chicago successfully blocked release of many recordings in federal court. 18. The episode combines first-person testimony, court documents, police records, and narration in a tense investigative format. 19. Best for listeners interested in wrongful-confession investigations. 20. Listeners seeking light entertainment may skip it.

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