Media, Former Governor Quinn Under Fire by City Attorneys

Media complicity in false exoneration of criminals?

City attorneys defending former Chicago Police detectives in a key federal lawsuit appear to be expanding on their theory that the release of a convicted killer was the result of media pressure, not evidence.

Court documents reveal that city attorneys are doubling down on their theory that Tyrone Hood was released from prison for his conviction in a 1993 murder case not by evidence of his innocence, but rather a potential nexus among the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago, former governor Pat Quinn and members of the media. The Exoneration Project is staffed with some attorneys from prominent wrongful conviction law firm, Loevy & Loevy.

Hood was convicted along with co-offender Wayne Washington for the murder of Marshall Morgan Jr., an Illinois Institute of Technology basketball star.

With the city attorneys’ apparent strategy, the Hood “exoneration” adds to a growing number of wrongful conviction cases in which the conduct of the media has been called into question. Journalists have been accused of working with attorneys representing convicted men on innocence claims to put pressure on elected officials and prosecutors to release these offenders, moving the cases out of the courtrooms and into the court of public opinion largely controlled by Chicago’s ideologically driven media.

Taken together, cases such as Hood’s ask a central question: Without such media support, could these offenders have been released from prison? If so, how many offenders have been released as a result of media pressure rather than evidence? And perhaps most importantly, how many Chicago Police personnel have been falsely accused?

The latter question is particularly compelling in the Hood case because three of the accused former police detectives—John Halloran, Kenneth Boudreau, and James O’Brien—are alleged to have for decades elicited false confessions. Indeed, the Chicago Tribune has been publishing articles since 2001 attacking these detectives, particularly Boudreau.

However, court records indicate that city attorneys don’t believe these detectives framed Hood. The records also seem to indicate that the defense doesn’t believe that Hood would have been released from prison if it weren’t for his media backers. In a motion filed in the federal civil case against the former detectives, city attorneys said as much about an article about the Hood saga authored by New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle:

“On Mr. Quinn’s last day in office as Governor, January 12, 2015, he commuted Plaintiff Hood’s 75-year sentence to time served. Mr. Quinn’s decision set in motion a chain of events that led directly to the reversal of Plaintiff’s convictions and these lawsuits, but the decision was not based on the discovery of any new evidence exonerating Hood or Washington, such as DNA or eyewitness testimony excluding them from the crime—that evidence does not exist. Rather, it was the product of an intense media campaign by Hood’s attorneys involving local and international celebrities.”

City attorneys attempted to depose Schmidle, but Schmidle’s attorneys fought against it and won. City attorneys have also deposed former Chicago reporter Renee Ferguson, whose cousin, according to testimony in the case, married Tyrone Hood.

During her sworn deposition, Ferguson stated:

Q. I understand that Mr. Hood ended up getting married to a cousin of yours?

A. Yes.

Q. I believe that’s Tanya Ferguson?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you speak with Tanya Ferguson about this deposition?

A. Yes.

While seated for the same deposition, Ferguson admitted the aim of her coverage of the Hood was to apply pressure to then-Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to release Hood.

Under questioning, Ferguson responded:

Q. What were you referring to with media pressure? What was the purpose of referring to media pressure?

A. I think to find justice.

Q. Would that be to leverage the media against decision makers like Anita Alvarez into giving Mr. Hood a new trial or recommending he be released?

The Hood case is not the first in which it has been suggested that journalists intimidated prosecutors into dropping charges against offenders by claiming police misconduct. Nonetheless, what is particularly telling about the Hood case is the fact that the defense claims and strategies have generated a most suspicious media silence. Not one media outlet in Chicago has even mentioned it, as if the defense claims are taboo.

Such a potential media code of silence bears a striking resemblance to a propaganda apparatus found behind the Iron Curtain rather than any vibrant press in a thriving democracy.

To fully understand how this occurred, consider this:  The detectives accused in this case have been under a relentless attack for more than two decades. Since 2001, the Chicago Tribune has been alleged one wrongful conviction after another against former detective Kenneth Boudreau. Yet recent evidence and  several court rulings suggest that Boudreau may be falsely accused in at least some cases. How can the Tribune, particularly its federal court reporter Jason Meisner, ignore these allegations of a collusion by the Chicago media and Hood’s supporters in light of these recent rulings? How could these ever be deemed not newsworthy to citizens of Chicago?

If Meisner and the Tribune thought the city attorneys were making bogus allegations against the media, wouldn’t they be assailing the city attorneys for alleging them to begin with? Meisner’s silence and that of his struggling publication are damning.

This leads us to the role played by former governor Pat Quinn, whose attorneys fought vigorously to prevent him from being deposed. That too begs a key question: Why?

If Quinn truly thinks Hood is innocent, why wouldn’t he welcome the chance to articulate it in a deposition and boast about his wisdom and political courage? Why also isn’t the media pressing him about his role in the case? Why aren’t journalists asking Quinn about his decision to release Hood, about his relationship with reporters and the Exoneration Project? Why aren’t they asking Quinn about his legal battle to avoid being deposed?

These questions become more crucial in light of the fact that Hood was not the only offender whose conviction was vacated in the waning moments of Quinn’s administration after he lost a bitter election to Governor Bruce Rauner. Quinn also commuted the sentence of Howard Morgan, convicted on four counts of attempted murder of police officers, three of whom were wounded in a shootout. He also commuted the sentence of Willie Johnson, convicted of perjury for his testimony that could have released two convicted killers. Those convicted killers were, like Hood, also represented by prominent wrongful conviction law firms in Chicago.

Quinn’s releasing of these convicted offenders—including a man who shot three police officers—hours before leaving office potentially stands as one of the greatest abuses of elected office in the history of the state, but the Chicago media has stood almost completely silent about it. That in and of itself is a chilling sign of the media collusion, particularly when one considers the endless ink spilled on the comparatively insignificant allegations against former Governor Rod Blagojevich that resulted in his imprisonment for more than eight years.

At a time when a national debate is raging against the conduct and perceived bias of the media, the Hood case and a host of others provide important evidence in this debate.

Just what has the media become in Chicago and throughout the rest of the country?