At ABC 7 Chicago Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel and Tom Jones and Chuck Goudie report on a valedictory interview of States Attorney Foxx by Chuck Goudie:
In what amounts to her last closing argument, Foxx sat down with the I-Team for a spirited review of her eight years in office as a so-called “progressive prosecutor,” marked by controversial reforms, high profile violence, wrongful convictions and a made-up celebrity crime.
One of the things that struck me about the interview was that in listing her accomplishments, Ms. Foxx could not have made what I’ve been saying all along more clearly. She has been disinterested in prosecuting, more focused on defense. What I have said in the past is that she viewed the Cook County States Attorney job as being “public defender at large”.
Among the things not mentioned in the interview were:
- The Jussie Smollett debacle, blandly referred to as a “made-up celebrity crime”, might not have become the cause célèbre if she had not given it credence
- An unprecedented number of prosecutors resigned on her watch, citing the job’s failure to meet their notions of justice
- The large number of felony cases dropped by the States Attorney’s office during her tenure
- The rate of violent crime increased in Chicago during her term although the reporting problems I have spoken of in the past make it hard to be certain
Hopefully, Eileen Burke O’Neill, Ms. Foxx’s successor, will take more interest in the job.
