Foxx to face questions about murder conviction review ‘investigations’

By Jonathan Bilyk | Legal Newsline
The Center Square

Former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx should need to answer questions under oath about her decision to direct her deputies to not oppose a move by two women who had been convicted of first degree murder to toss their conviction and open a pathway to add their names to the list of once-convicted criminals suing the city of Chicago for alleged wrongful prosecution.

On Feb. 20, federal Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim granted a motion by lawyers representing the city of Chicago and a controversial former police detective requiring Foxx to sit for a deposition.

The decision comes as part of the lawsuits filed against the city by Madeline Mendoza and Marilyn Mulero, as they seek potentially millions of dollars from the city over their alleged wrongful murder convictions.

Both of the women’s lawsuits were enabled after they secured so-called “certificates of innocence” from a Cook County court, largely because the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, then under Foxx’s leadership, conspicuously chose not to object to the women’s move to vacate their convictions and end their imprisonment.

Both Mendoza and Mulero were convicted of first degree murder in 1993, after they pleaded guilty to the 1992 murders of alleged rival gang members Hector Reyes and Jimmy Cruz in Humboldt Park.

Prosecutors and police claimed Mulero, then 21 years old, and Mendoza, then 16, worked with 15-year-old Jacqueline Montanez to shoot the alleged rival gang members to death, allegedly in retaliation for an earlier gang murder.

Mulero and Mendoza, however, claimed Montanez alone killed the two men. According to published reports and court documents, Montanez confessed to her lone involvement in the murders.

Mulero and Mendoza eventually pleaded guilty, however, resulting in a 35-year prison sentence for Mendoza and an initial death sentence for Mulero.

Mendoza was released from prison in 2009.

Mulero served 28 years in prison. Her sentence was ultimately commuted by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2020.

Both women filed suit in 2023, represented by attorneys known for suing the city of Chicago and other governments on behalf of convicted criminals who later claimed they were framed or otherwise the victims of wrongful prosecutions.

Mendoza is represented by attorneys Joel and Kenneth Flaxman, of the firm of Kenneth N. Flaxman P.C., of Chicago.

Mulero is represented by attorney Brian Eldridge, and others with the firm of Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge; and Antonio M. Romanucci, and others with the firm of Romanucci & Blandin, both of Chicago.

Their lawsuits came after a Cook County judge granted them “certificates of innocence,” particular court orders generally needed to sue over claims they were wrongfully prosecuted.

Generally, such certificates of innocence can only be obtained when someone who has been convicted of a crime persuades a judge that they are actually innocent — a legal standard upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court as recently as October 2025.

Typically, such process is adversarial, as prosecutors routinely argue against granting such proclamations to people against whom their offices had earlier secured convictions.

In the cases of both Mulero and Mendoza, however, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, then under Foxx, told the judge they would not object to the women’s innocence petitions.

With those certificates of innocence in hand, the women and their lawyers quickly filed suit against the city and Guevara, seeking payouts worth millions of dollars.

In their cases, both Mulero and Mendoza claimed they were allegedly coerced into confessing to the killings and into their guilty pleas by illegal interrogation tactics by controversial former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara and one of his partners.

Guevara has stood at the center of scores of cases accusing him of wrongful convictions alleging he improperly coerced confessions and framed those later convicted of crimes, including murder.

To date, cases involving misconduct accusations against Guevara have resulted in payments totaling $112 million from the city. There are still dozens of lawsuits pending involving misconduct accusations against Guevara, including the cases lodged by Mendoza and Mulero.

While those lawsuits remain pending, lawyers representing the city of Chicago and Guevara have also pressed to understand more about how the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office decided to not oppose Mulero’s and Mendoza’s innocence petitions.

Specifically, the defendants told the federal judges presiding over the case that they are seeking information about why Foxx’s office abruptly pivoted on the petitions in late 2022.

According to briefs filed in federal court, lawyers for the city and Guevara noted that “until late 2022, the CCSAO (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office) stood by the validity of both Mulero’s and Mendoza’s convictions and fought them at every step.”

However, the defendants say they want to know how the CCSAO’s decision in those case may have been influenced by a series of high-level meetings, which allegedly included Foxx herself, between the CCSAO and representatives of the group known as the Exoneration Project.

The Chicago-based Exoneration Project is a non-profit organization associated with the University of Chicago School of Law. However, the Exoneration Project is led by lawyers from the Chicago firm of Loevy & Loevy, a firm regularly and prominently involved in suing the city of Chicago over alleged wrongful convictions.

Eight attorneys from the Loevy firm serve as staff members at the Exoneration Project, including Exoneration’s executive director, Josh Tepfer.

According to the court filing, prior deposition testimony and other documentary evidence indicates Tepfer and others at Exoneration met with Foxx and her deputies on several occasions from 2020 to 2022, at least. Those meetings allegedly led to the development of special protocols developed by Foxx’s office on how to handle malicious prosecution claims specifically in cases involving Guevara.

According to the filing, in an email from Tepfer to Foxx, the Exoneration Project director thanked Foxx for apparently agreeing in 2022 to no longer contest any innocence certificate petitions in cases involving accusations against Guevara.

Shortly after, Foxx announced her office was seeking to vacate murder convictions in eight cases, including Mulero’s, allegedly solely on the basis that Guevara was involved in the cases.

That rationale was later extended to Mendoza, as well.

However, in those public statements, Foxx did not reference the involvement of the Exoneration Project, and instead claimed the decisions to vacate the sentences were made following an investigation of the cases by the CCSAO’s so-called Conviction Integrity Unit and others in her office.

In April 2023, Foxx announced she would not seek reelection in 2024. She allowed her law license to lapse and is no longer practicing law, according to state records.

Foxx was replaced as Cook County State’s Attorney in 2024 by former judge Eileen O’Neill Burke. Burke, also a Democrat, specifically campaigned on a platform of reversing a number of Foxx’s most controversial positions and policies, including Foxx’s policies pertaining to the detention and prosecution of people accused of violent crimes, policies which critics assailed as soft on crime.

In the litigation involving Mulero and Mendoza, lawyers for the city and Guevara say Foxx alone can explain why prosecutors were apparently directed to cease any further investigation of their claims — decisions which seem to contradict her public statements.

“Despite Ms. Foxx’s repeated discussion of the supposed investigation that was done by the CCSAO in relation to Mulero’s case and the merits thereof, the investigation Ms. Foxx touted remains shrouded in mystery,” the defendants’ lawyers wrote.

In court, current Cook County State’s Attorney Burke said her office did not oppose making Foxx testify. However, the CCSAO instead sought to limit questions only to what Foxx may have specifically known about Mulero’s and Mendoza’s cases.

In his ruling, Judge Kim largely agreed that questioning should be limited to issues pertaining to the women’s cases. But he said that can include questions about how Foxx came to decide to vacate the sentences and not oppose the certificate of innocence petitions, and why her public statements may not square with how those decisions were made.

The judge also refused the CCSAO’s request to bar video recording of the deposition. However, the judge indicated he would limit use of the video “only … for litigating this case,” as he was “mindful of the potential for the misuse of video recordings of public figures.”

Guevara is represented in the case by attorney Timothy P. Scahill, and others with the firm of Borkan & Scahill, of Chicago.

Other individual defendants are represented by attorneys from The Sotos Law Firm, of Chicago.

And the city is represented by attorney Eileen E. Rosen, and others appointed special assistant corporation counsel, from the firm of Rock Fusco & Connelly, of Chicago.