A Chicago federal judge has cleared the way for attorneys representing the city of Chicago and several Chicago Police officers to question under oath former top deputies of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, to shed more light on why Foxx’s office reversed itself and decided not to pursue new trials for two men who are now suing the city and police officers because they claim they were coerced into confessing to a brutal sexual assault and murder.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sunil Harjani rejected Foxx’s attempt to quash the subpoena issued by the city’s and officers’ lawyers, which required Foxx’s former Cook County First Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Sussman and attorney Mark Rotert, who formerly served as head of Foxx’s Conviction Integrity Unit, to sit for questioning in sworn depositions.
The CIU investigates past convictions to determine whether they were obtained legally.
Eric Sussman
| Reed Smith LLP
In his ruling, Judge Harjani said he agreed with the city’s and officers’ lawyers that “the information that the defendants seek from Mr. Sussman and Mr. Rotert constitutes relevant information.”
The lawyers for the city and the police officers have sought to question the former Cook County prosecutors to reveal why Foxx and her deputies did not contest the move to toss out the convictions and sentences of Derrell Fulton and Nevest Coleman in connection with the 1994 murder of Antwinica Bridgeman.
According to court documents, Bridgeman’s body was discovered in the basement of a building in the 900 block of W. 55th Street, on Chicago’s South Side. According to documents, Bridgeman died from suffocation, after a piece of concrete was forced down her throat. She had also been sexually violated by a six-inch pipe, which was still inserted when her body was found, court documents said.
Both Fulton and Coleman signed confessions to playing a role in her death, and they were sentenced to life in prison.
However, they later denied those confessions, saying investigating officers and at least one Cook County prosecutor coerced them into signing confessions.
After the men served 20 years in prison, the Cook County CIU, then under former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, reopened the case in June 2016.
Foxx defeated Alvarez in the November 2016 election.
After analysis of DNA evidence from the murder scene was matched to another man, attorneys for Coleman and Fulton asked a Cook County judge to vacate the convictions and grant the men new trials.
However, after initially backing the new trials, Foxx’s office within two weeks reversed its position, and did not contest the court’s decision to grant the men Certificates of Innocence.
Coleman and Fulton then filed civil rights lawsuits against the officers who had investigated the case, as well as the city of Chicago.
The defendants are asserting the Certificates of Innocence were wrongly issued, and the men should have instead faced a new trial, where the officers believe they would have again been found guilty.
They point to statements made publicly by both Sussman and Rotert that they believed Coleman and Fulton were guilty of the crime, despite the recantation of their confessions and the DNA evidence found at the murder scene.
Lawyers for the city and the officers said they believed questioning of Rotert and Sussman would more fully explain why Foxx and her team decided to allow Coleman and Fulton to walk away, opening the police officers and the city up to a lawsuit.
In this case, the defendants said they believe Foxx and her deputy prosecutors allowed the court to grant Certificates of Innocence to reduce the chance the two men would sue Cook County prosecutors.
Sussman departed Foxx's office in early 2018, and now works at the firm of Reed Smith LLP, in Chicago.
Rotert now works, of counsel, at the firm of Cotsirilos Tighe Streicker Poulos & Campbell Ltd., of Chicago.
Foxx had objected to the questioning of her two former deputies. The State's Attorney's office said Sussman and Rotert, and any information they may harbor concerning the Bridgeman case, should be shielded from view and not subject to questioning.
Judge Harjani disagreed.
According to an official court transcript of the hearing before Harjani on Dec. 4, the judge noted he believed it is likely the two plaintiffs’ lawyers would attempt to introduce as evidence the so-called Certificates of Innocence they received from Cook County judges, after Foxx’s office did not object or seek new trials.
The judge said this should entitle the officers and city to “explore rebuttal evidence designed to show or argue that these decisions by the State’s Attorney and the Certificate of Innocence is not automatically indicative of innocence, that just because these decisions were made does not mean that … the plaintiffs are innocent.”
However, Harjani’s ruling did limit the kinds of questions the defendants’ lawyers could ask. Harjani said the defendants would be allowed to question Sussman and Rotert concerning:
- The policies and procedures followed by the CIU during its “reinvestigation” of the crime and cases against Fulton and Coleman;
- Whether those policies and procedures were actually followed in this case;
- What materials were actually reviewed during the “reinvestigation;” and
- “The general factors considered by the State’s Attorney’s Office in evaluating generally whether to oppose … a Certificate of Innocence.”
The judge did not issue a written ruling.
Sussman is being represented in the subpoena-related action by an attorney from Foxx’s office.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is also representing Cook County in the cases.
Fulton is represented by attorney Kathleen T. Zellner, of Downers Grove.
Coleman is represented in his lawsuit by attorneys with the firm of Loevy & Loevy, of Chicago.
The police officer defendants are represented by the firm of Rock Fusco & Connelly, of Chicago.
The city of Chicago is represented by the Sotos Law Firm, of Chicago.