Chicago City Wire

A Cook County judge shredded the new head of Kim Foxx’s post-conviction unit over a side business she runs that connects inmates, claiming innocence, with defense attorneys.

In a January 8 hearing, Judge Michael McHale of the Cook County Circuit Court rejected Michelle Mbekeani’s claim that her business, Periodsentence.com, was a school project for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she is pursuing an MBA.

Foxx recently named Mbekeani head of the Conviction Review Unit in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s (CCSAO) office – the office reviews post-conviction claims of wrongful convictions. The case before Judge McHale is a post-conviction case of convicted murderer Dante Brown.

Judge McHale told Mbekeani that he found her answers to his questions about Periodsentence.com, where she is listed as the Founder/CEO of the subscription-based business, “duplicitous.”

“One cannot represent conflicting interests or undertake to discharge inconsistent duties,” the judge said. “When the appearance of a disabling conflict is clear, a per se conflict of interest exists.”

“Unfortunately, I find that is exactly what we have here,” he continued. “A prosecutor who has a duty to vigorously represent the victims of crimes and their families, and cannot also, at the same time, appear to be deeply invested in working with the defense and their efforts for their clients, especially appearing to run a for profit corporation that has been registered in the state of Illinois, filing an annual report, a name change and Articles of Incorporation.”

The judge added that Mbekeani had “conflicted yourself off this case, so to speak, in addition to any other cases in my courtroom.”

On December 6, Foxx named Mbekeani, senior legal and policy advisor for justice reform in Foxx’s office, as head of the Conviction Review Unit, formerly the Conviction Integrity Unit.

One former assistant prosecutor called Mbekeani’s appointment a “sickening conflict of interest,” in previous reporting by Chicago City Wire.

“Talk about the wolf watching the hen house,” the former prosecutor said. “Imagine the business she’s going to get when attorneys know that she’s the one reviewing the cases.”

The Periodsentenc.com website, shut down to the pubic after the City Wire story appeared, advertises that it “gives people in prison a free digital platform to search and access legal assistance and advocacy for their innocence claims and post-conviction relief.”

To take advantage of the services, “attorneys purchase a yearly subscription to Period which allows them to create a profile about their services and eligibility requirements.” The yearly subscription rate is not advertised on the website.

According to the CCSAO website, the post-conviction unit in the CCSAO is “responsible for reviewing claims of actual innocence or wrongful conviction resulting from prosecutions by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.”

“The Unit reviews any claim from a living person who was convicted in Cook County,” the website says. “Cases come through many sources, including letters from the convicted person, their loved ones, and attorneys; post-conviction filings that raise actual innocence claims, the work of Innocence and Exoneration projects, media investigations, and internal sources.”

In a profile section on her site, Mbekeani notes that she worked “alongside the National Innocence Project and crafted legislation that prohibits an interrogation tactic that has led to false confessions – including the Exonerated Five in the Central Park Jogger case.”