Kim Foxx Keeps Proving She's A Politician In Prosecutor's Clothes

CHICAGO — Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx keeps proving that she is the same politician in prosecutor's clothes responsible for a substantial abuse of discretion and breached obligation of honesty and transparency by making false statements to the public in the botched prosecution of actor Jussie Smollett.

The forced resignation of the state's attorney's office first deputy, 26-year veteran prosecutor Jennifer Coleman — over the misleading wording in charges against the man who was with Adam Toledo the night a cop shot and killed the Little Village seventh grader — is the latest example of Foxx's inability to ensure professionalism and transparency in the prosecutorial handling of high-profile criminal cases.

What's worse is that Foxx was apparently asleep at the wheel in a case connected to a Chicago cop killing a 13-year-old. She left responsibility to unchecked underlings even as a national spotlight on police use of force focused on the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who later was convicted of killing George Floyd.

Foxx told reporters she didn't watch video of Toledo's murder. She didn't ask to read the proffer in Ruben Roman Jr.'s bond hearing that many people interpreted to suggest the 13-year-old had a gun in his hand when he was shot and killed.

When it turned out that details in the proffer didn't appear to match what transpired on police video of Toledo's death, Foxx had the gall to call the fiasco a communication breakdown.

Dereliction of duty might be closer to the truth.

On April 22, Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman pressed Foxx to explain why she didn't demand to see the controversial proffer on the "heater case" under a national media microscope.

"Why not? You're the state's attorney. It's a big case. It's a heater case," Spielman said.

Foxx actually chuckled before dodging the question.

"Certainly, Fran. We do bond proffers daily, many times a day. They don’t rise up to me. One of the things that we are looking at in this particular case, because it’s a heater case, is why it had not been sent up to me,” Foxx said on the "Fran Spielman Show" podcast.

Go ahead, listen to the whole interview. What you'll hear is Foxx hiding behind her office's "ongoing investigation," a tired tactic too often used by law enforcement officials and politicians to keep secrets for as a long as possible.

On Wednesday, Foxx's office sent out a news release saying the internal investigation found it was a "breakdown in communication" that didn't get elevated to the top prosecutor. Further, the statement said information provided to the State’s Attorney previewing what would be said in court did not align with what was presented in court.

On the day of Roman's bond hearing, Foxx knew the man accused of being with Toledo the night the boy was killed was due in court. She got an email informing her that felony charges would be filed against the Maywood man, a source in her office said.

But that email didn't include the proffer — and Foxx didn't ask to see it.

If the state's attorney would have taken an interest, Foxx would have learned that her then-first assistant made a decision to add a felony child endangerment charge to the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm charges that were forwarded by the felony review division.

It was after the child endangerment charge was added that the proffer included a list of details about the events leading to Toledo's death, including that the boy had a gun in his hand and was shot by a police officer, according to a source in Foxx's office.

Separately, those details are true. Together, they suggest that the 13-year-old may have been shot with a gun in his hand. Police video appears to show that Toledo had dropped the gun and put his hands up moments before being fatally shot.

Foxx got blasted for it. Former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez accused her of turning her back "on all of us that are seeking justice in the city of Chicago." She's been running for political cover ever since. She suspended prosecutor James Murphy, who read the proffer in court. She forced out Coleman.

In a statement, Foxx said she's sorry that the "tragedy of the death of 13-year old boy has been clouded by the confusion and frustration my office has caused."

But it's Foxx's personal failure to actively supervise the investigation of a case related to a fatal shooting by a police office she should be apologizing — or resigning — over.

Instead, Foxx has folks whispering off-the-record excuses why the mess isn't her fault: Her staff didn't call. They didn't text. They didn't email her any details about the charges against Roman other than a readout of bond court appearances that she gets every day.

My question is: Did Foxx read the news?

Because everybody in Chicago knew authorities were hunting for Roman, who was arrested on misdemeanor resisting arrest charges the night Toledo died and was released on his own recognizance.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot made front-page news vowing to hold accountable the adults who "put a gun in the hands" of a seventh grader.

A warrant was issued for Roman's arrest on April 8 for not showing up in court on a separate gun charge. He was arrested in Maywood the next day, and charged with felonies by her office.

If Cook County's top prosecutor needs a reminder of her responsibility to make sure mistakes aren't made investigating every angle of a "heater case" that Chicago leaders feared would lead to riots once the public saw video of the last moment of a young boy's life, well, somebody send Foxx an email.

It's her job to decide whether to charge the cop who killed Toledo with a crime.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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