* Dan Mihalopoulos is told one thing by the state’s attorney and another by Kim Foxx…
I filed a public records request with the state’s attorney’s office to get a list of all of the felony cases Foxx tried during her 12 years as an assistant state’s attorney, from 2001 to 2013. Though public officials often dawdle at least as long as legally possible to answer such requests, aides to the embattled incumbent state’s attorney, Anita Alvarez, quickly replied this time.
They said there was a single case — just one — in the Felony Trial Division where Foxx worked with a more experienced prosecutor to win guilty verdicts against the two defendants. […]
Foxx said that the office of Alvarez — the two-term incumbent she is challenging in the Democratic primary on March 15 — had purposely given me a list that was missing many cases she had worked on.
“It is extremely incomplete,” she said. “I did try quite a few cases. This is crazy to me.”
Alvarez’s aides said what they gave me is everything they have on Foxx.
Weird all around.
* From a press release…
Donna More’s campaign to unseat State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has taken to the airwaves with a month long TV advertising campaign that will run in targeted cable TV regions of Cook County. The effort includes a :30 second spot that insists “Anita Alvarez must go.”
The schedule that the campaign purchased will have both :30 and :15 second ads running in primetime and daytime. The plan calls for the spots to air on major cable networks for now including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Lifetime, TBS, TNT and USA networks.
The ads draw a sharp distinction between More and her opponents in the upcoming primary. Citing Alvarez’ misconduct, one ad criticizes her term in office as “justice delayed, justice denied” and then ticks off More’s unique qualifications: a former federal prosecutor with felony jury trial experience and a plan to reduce gun violence.
More is not a politician; she is a prosecutor who is running for office for the first time. She is the only candidate in the March 15 primary that isn’t beholden to political bosses.
* Kerry Lester has an in-depth interview with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. From Kerry’s bullet points…
• She decided within weeks to hand the reins of the investigation over to federal authorities and that she frequently communicated with them in the months to follow.
• A 13-month delay before bringing first-degree murder charges against officer Jason Van Dyke stemmed from the difficulty of building a strong case, not just making an arrest.
• The timing of the charges days after a judge ordered release of a video showing the shooting of Laquan McDonald was “in the interest of public safety,” but she had decided on the charges weeks earlier.
