Tribune’s Buckley Does Damage Control in New Kim Foxx Scandal

Tribune tactics to protect Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx unfolds in the wake of Foxx prosecutor accused of lying…

Tribune’s Buckley Does Damage Control in New Kim Foxx Scandal

Tribune tactics to protect Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx unfolds in the wake of Foxx prosecutor accused of lying…

By now the playbook of the Chicago media is obvious to anyone forced to watch the sordid demise of the city’s criminal justice system.

This playbook was on full display the last few weeks in the so-called reporting of Chicago Tribune’s Madeline Buckley in the wake of a top prosecutor recently hired by Foxx who was accused of lying to a trial judge in court. The accusations arose in yet another case of a man claiming he was wrongfully convicted.

Under Kimberly Foxx, hope to the most vicious, violent predators in the state prisons soars. The single guiding policy in Foxx’s reign as a top prosecutor is her willingness to embrace the claims of men claiming they were innocent, mostly on the grounds of police, prosecutor, or judicial misconduct. Foxx’s embracing of these narratives and willingness to let these men out of prison stands in stark contrast to her predecessor, Anita Alvarez, who refused time and again to overturn convictions despite the near manic attacks by the Chicago media when Alvarez refused to buckle.

Foxx’s decisions in these exoneration cases have initiated strong criticism, all the way up to her top prosecutors, who have stated in depositions of some cases that they did not believe that inmates released by Foxx were innocent of the crimes. In some instances, the prosecutors have also said they did not believe that the detectives who worked the cases committed misconduct.

But last week, Judge Michael McHale directly attacked a Foxx prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case. In a December hearing McHale questioned whether Foxx’s new hire as a head of the Conviction Review Unit, Michelle Mbekeani, held a conflict of interest for her role as head of prosecutor’s department that reviews wrongful conviction claims at the same time she was tied to an organization that assisted offenders in finding defense attorneys for innocence claims. Later, in a January hearing, the judge ruled not only that the conflict existed, but that Mbekeani was lying to the judge in her explanations. McHale then banned Mbekeani from his courtroom.

McHale’s bombshell ruling begs a host of other key questions about how and why Kim Foxx’s administration is truly operating, but in Chicago, those key questions will not be posed by the media. Rather, a familiar playbook aimed at protecting Foxx in the wake of even more evidence that she is releasing offenders into the public not because they are innocent, but as a means to fuel the anti-police movement.

Foxx can get away with these dubious exonerations because the Chicago media clearly works damage control for her. So it is in the last scandal of her top prosecutor being accused of holding a conflict of interest and lying to a trial judge.

Two media tactics emerge time and again to protect Foxx, fully on display in the reporting and nonreporting of Tribune courts and crime reporter Madeline Buckley’s coverage of the emerging Foxx scandal.

The first tactic by “reporters” is simply to refuse to cover accusations, evidence, and testimony that contradict their narratives. Even when these counter narratives are posed in places supposedly covered aggressively by the media, places as obvious as federal courtrooms, the entire media mainstream media machine nevertheless ignores it.

So it was in the now emerging scandal over the conflict of interest and the allegations of lying against Foxx’s new hire Mbekeani. The fact that Mbekeani was working on an organization that assisted convicted offenders with finding attorneys at the same time she was considering exoneration claims as prosecutors in the Conviction Review Unit was a story that broke from an outsider media publication, Chicago City Wire. After it broke, it was not picked up by any other outlet save CWB Chicago.

Citing the Chicago City Wire article, Judge McHale stated all the way back in a December hearing that he was concerned about the conflict of interest and would look further into it. The transcripts of those crucial statements by the judge were available to any reporter who took the time to seek them out.

A reporter is supposed to have sources, supposed to be aware of upcoming, crucial issues. The truth is that McHale’s December questioning of Mbekeani and the upcoming January hearing in which he would announce his ruling reverberated throughout the halls at 26^th and California for several weeks, which is likely how Chicago City Wire heard about it.

Yet no news publication in Chicago, including Buckley knew about it? If they did, they didn’t think it was newsworthy? It was only alternative news sources outside the Chicago news belt that heard about the story? How is this possible? A cynical observer might conclude that the entire media establishment would be covering for Foxx, hoping the story would fade away without being covered, particularly since it has happened too many other times during Foxx’s reign.

The next month, McHale did in fact hold a hearing and announce his findings. It was a Monday, the beginning of the work week. In that hearing, McHale let loose a blistering condemnation of Mbekeani, ruling Mbekeani did in fact have a conflict of interest and that she was lying in court. Again, it was the talk of 26^th and California, yet no one in the MSM published anything.

Again, did they not hear about it? Did they not get any phone calls or tips from the prosecutors, many of the prosecutors furious that Foxx imposed an exoneration enthusiast to a top position in a prosecutor’s office, an appointment one prosecutor called “sickening’?

Only after the story was announced by this publication and a follow up story by CWB Chicago came out did Buckley at the Tribune publish an article.

Which brings us to the second media tactic. Forced into finally covering the story as it swept through the criminal courts, Buckley immediately initiated the all too familiar media strategy of damage control.

“A judge has taken the unusual step of seeking to ban a Cook County prosecutor from his courtroom, alleging a business-related conflict of interest, according to a court order filed Thursday,” Buckley’s lead on the story announced, somewhat later describing the incident as a “spat.”

A spat?

Incredibly, Buckley only mentions the ruling that there is a conflict of interest but ignores the ruling that one of Foxx’s top prosecutors was also accused of lying.

Then Buckley quoted at length in her article a response by the Foxx administration to the judge’s ruling about banning Mbekeani from his courtroom, a statement by Foxx condemning the judge’s statements.

Condemning a judge’s ruling that an attorney lied?

It would be difficult to imagine how Buckley could go to bat more for Foxx’s regime, for Buckley essentially paves the way for Foxx not to be held accountable in the case, conveniently ignoring the central issue: One of Foxx’s top prosecutor, recently hired and holding little experience in a courtroom, was accused of lying to a trial judge.

Certainly a court and crime reporter like Buckley is aware of the Himmel rule in Illinois, the one in which the Supreme Court imposes a duty of an attorney to report possible misconduct by another attorney? The obvious question to any journalist would be to ask who at the prosecutor’s office would fulfill the obligation of reporting these allegations in the wake of Judge McHale’s accusations. Instead, Foxx and Buckley ignore this law and Foxx issues a statement condemning the judge.

Is this what the tragic writers meant by hubris?

Foxx’s hubris is no doubt rooted in the belief that she can rely on the cabal of journalists like Buckley to go along with Foxx’s radicalization of the prosecutor’s office.

Nevertheless, does Judge McHale’s ruling suggest at least some of the judges have had enough with Foxx and her exoneration allies? That remains to be seen. McHale’s words were strong against Mbekeani, but he also refused to call for a special prosecutor in the case and his ruling held some bizarre language about “good intentions” in the case.

Good intentions? One evolution in the exoneration movement during Foxx’s reign of chaos and corruption was the expansion of allegations not just against detectives, but also against prosecutors and judges.

Ask them about good intentions.

But it’s good to see a judge stand tall.

Martin Preib is a retired Chicago Police officer. An author of three books, The Wagon and Other Stories From the City, Crooked City, and Burn Patterns, Mr. Preib’s written work has also been published in Playboy, Virginia Quarterly Review, New City, and Tin House.  For his essay appearing in Virginia Quarterly Review, Mr. Preib was awarded the Staige D. Blackford Award for Nonfiction in 2005. In addition to his role with the City of Chicago, Mr. Preib served as the Second Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7.