Chicago City Wire

Throughout her two-term tenure in office, Cook County State's Attorney (CCSAO) Kim Foxx has repeatedly promised full transparency.

Yet, her office has on numerous occasions thwarted Chicago City Wire from determining the legal basis behind numerous exonerations of convicted murderers— over 200 since Foxx first took office at the end of 2016.

One recent example is the case of Jose Cruz, convicted of a 1993 shooting murder at North and Kedzie Avenues, but exonerated by Foxx when the CCSAO dropped its challenge to Cruz’s post-conviction relief petition. In July 2022, Cruz walked out of the Stateville Correctional Center a free man. A month earlier, Foxx had visited Cruz in prison.

Cruz has since obtained a Certificate of Innocence and in July 2023, filed a wrongful conviction case in federal court, claiming that Reynaldo Guevara, the lead detective investigating the murder of 16-year-old Antwane Douglas, had framed him. 

Guevara has been named in over a dozen other wrongful conviction cases— so many that the CCSAO was establishing a review protocol for each case.

It's unclear if Foxx was intent on following it.

A response from the CCSAO to a City Wire Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for a copy of the post-conviction integrity protocol related to Cruz pointed to a website that provided a general description of operations at the Office of the Conviction Review Unit. The response also said that “[p]reliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated” are exempt from FOIA.

It's unclear if the conviction protocol for Cruz fell into the exemption category.

City Wire also asked for all memos related to the Cruz case, including all July 2022 emails between Risa Lanier, First Assistant’s State’s Attorney, and Foxx.

A July 7 email from Lanier to Foxx said: “Here is write up from PC summarizing the Cruz matter. I have reviewed and will discuss with Carol during our 1 pm meeting.”

No write-up was forwarded to City Wire along with the email exchange.

A July 7 email from Carol Rogala, Assistant State’s Attorney, stated “here is the background on the Jose Cruz case including Rey Guevara’s participation in the investigation. It is not very long. I will be happy to answer any questions at our meeting at 1 pm today.”

No background report was provided to City Wire.

In a July 11, 2022 email, Chicago Tribune reporter Megan Crepeau wrote to Christina Villarreal, Chief of External Affairs for CCSAO: 

"In a filing late last month in the Cruz case Cruz's attorney said that SA Foxx visited Stateville on June 15, where she spoke to Cruz and told him that she had a conversation about him with her staff the day before and that 'he should hold on for just a little bit because 'he was coming home.'" Is this accurate? If so -- why was SA Foxx at Stateville that day. I assume it was for this event [link to event unavailable] but correct me if I'm wrong. Cruz's lawyer also said that when he reached out to the First Assistant about this conversation on June 25, he was told that they couldn't discuss the SAO's review of the case until July 5. Why was that?"

"What parameters does your office use to determine whether or not a Guevara case should be thrown out?" Crepeau asked further down in the email. 

Villarreal responded: "The Cook County State's Attorney Office's Conviction Integrity Unit is actively review cases involving Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Our review includes examining the facts and evidence, including new information regarding alleged misconduct involving Detective Guevara. We are exercising due diligence in our review to ensure that justice is served. In the matter of Jose Cruz, our review concluded that his conviction was not in the interest of justice, and today we moved to dismiss."

The email exchange provided to City Wire contained no response to Crepeau's questioning what Foxx was doing at Stateville that day.