Chicago City Wire

Kim Foxx has refused to turn over files in the possession of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) covering the criminal prosecutions of two brothers convicted of the 1982 murders of two police officers – files that would help in the defense of a former CCSAO employee named in a wrongful conviction case brought by the surviving brother. 

The files contain information on the three prosecutions of one brother, Jackie Wilson, for the murders, and one prosecution of his brother, Andrew. 

Andrew, who like Jackie confessed to the murders, was convicted along with his brother in 1983. Jackie was tried separately from his brother in 1988 and was convicted a second time. The third prosecution case against Jackie fell apart. He then brought the wrongful lawsuit in 2021 on claims that his original confession was forced by police. Andrew died in prison in 2007.

Foxx’s office said it “it was unable to comment” to a request as to why she refused to turn over the files even after an attorney representing former Assistant State’s Attorney Lawrence Hyman filed an emergency motion in federal court asking that discovery in the civil case be delayed until he and his client were in receipt of the files.

In the motion, attorney Ed Theobald wrote that Foxx’s refusal to release the files was especially egregious since she had claimed that her office was conflicted out of representing the defendants in the case. Theobald was appointed a Special State’s Attorney for Hyman because of the conflict claim.

“However, conflicted State’s Attorney KIM FOXX filed an inaccurate pleading for a non-existent entity in an attempt to avoid admitting FOXX’s undeniable ‘conflict’ while continuing to unlawfully withhold files from Defendants going back to February, 1982, which Defendants need to defend themselves and should have been tendered many months ago pursuant to Rule 1.16 of the Illinois Code of Professional Responsibility,” Theobald wrote in the motion.

Theobald added that “conflicted KIM FOXX hiring other attorneys, with County funds, to oppose a duly appointed Special Cook County State’s Attorney’s requests for files is reminiscent of FOXX’s involvement in the Jussie Smollett debacle.”

Without explanation, the judge denied the request.

Hyman was supervisor of the Felony Review Unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office (CCSAO), when he took Jackie Wilson’s statement confessing to his role in the murders.

The two murdered police officers were William Fahey, 34 and Richard O'Brien, 33. Their murders occurred less than a week after another officer, James Doyle, 34, was shot and killed while escorting a robbery suspect from a bus.

In a separate instance of non-transparency, Foxx’s office ignored Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from Chicago City Wire into exonerations tied to the investigative work of former Detective Reynaldo Guevara. City Wire is looking into communications CCSAO had with lawyers representing those exonerated who have filed wrongful conviction suits, and why the office backed down from opposing Certificates of Innocence in some of the cases.