The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) is appealing to a federal judge to expand its “scope of intervention” in a civil trial against former Assistant State’s Attorney Nick Trutenko, who among more than a dozen others is being sued for wrongful conviction by twice-convicted cop killer Jackie Wilson.
The CCSAO is reacting to a ruling in a criminal trial against Trutenko, 68, that placed communications between Trutenko and assistant prosecutor Paul Fangman off limits in the trial – Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes (presiding because of a potential conflict in Cook County) deemed the relationship between the two to be one of attorney-client privilege.
He blasted Kim Foxx's office in the November 8 ruling.
"The Court is shocked by the failure of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office to ensure their assistants know when and how attorney/client relationships form,” Judge Shanes wrote. “And to take appropriate steps to ensure that an attorney/client relationship only forms when one is intended. Issues like these threaten the very foundation of the practice of law and undermine public confidence in the law.”
In its filing in the civil case, the CCSAO said it “believes that the issues raised, and the decision reached, in Judge Shanes’ ruling may have a significant and detrimental impact on the CCSAO’s duties of representation.”
“A finding that the CCSAO creates a personal attorney-client relationship every time it undertakes an official capacity representation would create an untenable situation where the CCSAO would be beholden to protect public officials to the detriment of the public,” the office further argued.
The CCSAO also said it will contest Shanes’ order in the criminal case.
The office fired Trutenko in October 2020 after his testimony in the third trial of Wilson, 63, for his role, along with his brother Andrew, in the 1982 execution style murders of police officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien. Trutenko was the prosecutor in the second trial of Jackie in 1989, where he was tried separately from his brother. He was acquitted of the Fahey murder but convicted again of the O’Brien murder. He was sentenced to life.
Back in March, Trutenko was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the 2020 Wilson trial. Charges against Wilson were dropped in that case based in part on the allegations against Trutenko.
But the criminal case against Trutenko suffered a setback with Judge Shanes’ attorney-client privilege ruling. A special prosecutor has appealed that ruling.
Wilson claims that he was tortured and framed for the murders. He spent 36 years in jail. He was released in 2018 under an order from Cook County Judge William Hooks.
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