Two men exonerated after 23 years in custody claim Cook County Circuit Judge Matthew Coghlan took part in framing them for murder, standing by as disgraced former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara convinced an informant to falsely accuse them, according to a pending federal lawsuit. As a judge, Coghlan mishandled the post-conviction petition of a man convicted of murder, refusing to grant the man a hearing and then, after the judge’s decision was reversed by a higher court, refusing to do so a second time. But an analysis of sentencing data, made public by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, shows Coghlan generally imposes sentences harsher than the median sentence 39 percent of the time, a rate slightly higher than Cook County criminal judges as a whole.