The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police have planned a protest in front of Kim Foxx’s office on Monday, April 1st-April Fool’s Day- fitting.
The FOP #7 is demanding that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx resign from her position over the handling of “Empire” star Jussie Smollett’s case.
After all 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct against Smollett were dropped on Tuesday by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Chicago police union decided enough was enough.
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police First Vice President Patrick Murray told Blue Lives Matter that Foxx needed to be “held accountable for what she’s done.”
“She’s not above the law either,” Murray stressed. “I think this entire thing is an obstruction of justice – her talking to another attorney and then reaching out to our police superintendent to ask him to involve another agency that had no jurisdiction was just wrong. She overstepped her bounds.”
“I think she needs to step down,” Murray continued. “I think she violated her ethics oath. Somebody else should become the state’s attorney – she should just step down and walk away. How many other cases has she stepped in and done something like this that we’re not even aware of?”
Murray also told Blue Lives Matter that Foxx ignored the recommendation of her very own ethics officer in the way she handled the Smollett case:
“A state’s attorney should not be speaking with a family who is involved like this – she has an ethics officer who told her to recuse herself and she didn’t do that. She was supposed to give the case to another jurisdiction to prosecute it but instead she just passed it to Magats,” he said.
According to the Chicago Patch, state law in Illinois states that “the court shall appoint a special prosecutor” after any state’s attorney recuses herself in any given case.
The issue here is that Foxx’s office has gone back and forth on whether or not she actually ever recused herself from the Smollett case.
RELATED: The Smollett Saga Continues: Power, Corruption, and Political Connections Override Justice
As I reported yesterday, Foxx stated she’d recused herself from the Smollett fake hate crime last month, but on Wednesday, Foxx’s office said Foxx didn’t actually recuse herself, and that “it was a colloquial use of the term rather than in its legal sense.”
“The state’s attorney did not formally recuse herself or the office based on any actual conflict of interest,” Tandra Simonton said in a statement. “As a result, she did not have to seek the appointment of a special prosecutor under (state law).”
Foxx explained that by removing herself from the case, it would have tipped Smollett off that he was being considered a suspect.
“Me saying publicly and me moving our office out of it while the investigation was ongoing would signal that (the) investigation had changed outwardly.”
-Kim Foxx
The Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association said on Thursday that the way Foxx’s office handled the Smollett case was “not condoned” and “highly unusual,” WMAQ reported.
The following written statement was released by the association:
“The manner in which this case was dismissed was abnormal and unfamiliar to those who practice law in criminal courthouses across the state. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges alike do not recognize the arrangement Mr. Smollett received. Even more problematic, the State’s Attorney and her representatives have fundamentally misled the public on the law and circumstances surrounding the dismissal.”
Murray said that even though Foxx’s handling of the Smollett case is horrible, it’s not the first time that the Cook County State’s Attorney has shown bad judgement.
Murray said the FOP would also be protesting for Foxx’s resignation due to the handling of Chicago Police Officer Tito “Mannie” Rodriguez’s killer, (killed by a reckless driver on the Dan Ryan Expressway) who was given a plea deal without knowledge or consent of Officer Rodriguez’s family.
“There was a plea deal made behind the family’s back and they knocked it down to misdemeanor,” Murray told Blue Lives Matter.
As far as the handling of the Smollett case, Murray stated, “I was on the job for more than 29 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. This is horrific what has happened. She just basically let this guy walk.”
“Enough is enough. He involved a lots of people and the bottom line is that he needs to be held accountable,” Murray continued.
Murray explained that the FOP would be setting up at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 1st (April Fool’s Day), outside of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Murray stressed to Blue Lives Matter that though the protest was being held on April Fool’s Day, the protest was definitely not a joke.
“We’re going to have a lot of people come out to express their displeasure with Kim Foxx,” Murray told Blue Lives Matter. “The more the merrier. She needs to step down and be replaced.”
For more information on the protest, visit the Fraternal Order of Police- Chicago Lodge #7’s official Facebook Page or their Twitter account.
Facebook Page: Fraternal Order of Police: Chicago Lodge No. 7
Twitter Feed: @FOP7Chicago
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