Chicago City Wire

A conservative government watchdog group has sued the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO), led by Kim Foxx, for failing to comply with its FOIA requests surrounding the head of the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) and numerous controversial exonerations of convicted murderers under Foxx’s watch.

The Washington D.C.-based Judicial Watch (JW) filed the complaint on June 10 with the Circuit Court of Cook County; in it, JW noted that the CCSAO quickly responded to its March 4 FOIA request that the office had received it, but the group received nothing further. Under the state’s FOIA law, the office has five business days to comply.

JW requested all communications between the head of CRU Michelle Mbekeani, and staff over exonerations, and logs of meetings between Mbekeani and inmates.

“Ms. Foxx’s dangerous experiment of ‘participatory justice’ does not allow for participation nor justice,” Mark Spencer, JW Projects Coordinator, said in a statement provided to Chicago City Wire. “Instead, it excludes, eliminates, and replaces the voices of victims, the work of prosecutors, and the perspective of police. And in lieu of pursuing justice, it facilitates a liberal agenda and political pandering disguised as ‘community members and criminal justice advocates.’”

Exonerations under Foxx have skyrocketed since began her tenure as SA in late 2016 – over 250. Many stem from allegations of police abuse of suspects, especially against those detectives who had any association, even casual, with former Commander Jon Burge. Burge was convicted in 2010 of perjury surrounding allegations of torturing suspects. He died in 2018.

Many of the exonerations have been questioned for their lack of evidence necessary to overturn the convictions, including the case of the Englewood Four. 

Foxx named Mbekeani head of CRU in January and she quickly ran into trouble with a Cook County judge. Chicago City Wire reported that Mbekeani maintained a side business connecting inmates, claiming innocence, with defense attorneys. She presented her business to Judge Michael McHale as a school project. McHale accused her of being deceptive and banned her from his courtroom.

Former Chicago police union (FOP) spokesman, Martin Preib, has spent years investigating exonerations of convicted murderers, covering some of the cases in his book, "Crooked City," and currently covers them under a blog published on Substack under the same name.

“It’s not the first time private parties have gone to court to enforce FOIA requests against the Foxx administration,” Preib wrote in a recent post about the JW lawsuit. Chicago City Wire has been forced to go to court in an effort to compel Foxx’s office to turn over records pertaining to dozens of exonerations that have taken place since Foxx was elected, particularly those tied to a retired detective Reynaldo Guevara.”

Guevara has been named in over a dozen wrongful conviction suits stemming from Foxx exonerations.

Foxx announced last April that she will not be seeking re-election. This past April, Eileen O’Neill Burke won the Democratic primary for CCSAO over Clayton Harris III, the choice of Foxx and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. O’Neill faces Republican Bob Fioretti, and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski in November.