A special prosecutor from the Illinois Attorney General’s office will prosecute misdemeanor charges against Jedidiah Brown, after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx decision to recuse herself over allegations she had political ties to the community activist.
Cook County Circuit Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., chief of the criminal division, appointed the AG’s office at a hearing Thursday.
Foxx stepped aside from Brown’s case, which stemmed from a 2018 arrest at a protest in South Shore, after eight officers involved in the arrest said Foxx had a conflict of interest because Brown is a political supporter who shared the stage with her at a news conference April 6 at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters.
Foxx also posed for a selfie with Brown, who faces misdemeanor charges for resisting arrest and striking an officer during a 2018 demonstration in South Shore. Brown has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and seven officers involved in the arrest.
At a hearing last month, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Allen said Foxx had opted to stand aside for a special prosecutor but noted Brown was never a member of Foxx’s campaign staff and that Foxx was not aware Brown had a pending criminal case at the time of the news conference and the photo.
Brown’s lawyer, Jon Erickson, said appointing a special prosecutor would delay Brown’s case, an issue he intends to raise Wednesday at a previously scheduled hearing in the case.
Erickson also said the petition by the police officers, represented by former prosecutor James McKay, was an extension of the Fraternal Order of Police’s political opposition to Foxx.
At the Rainbow/PUSH news conference, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, called out the FOP, the union that represents the bulk of Chicago police officers, as “the sworn enemy of black people.”
The Fraternal Oder of Police alleges a selfie that Jedidiah Brown posted of him with Kim Foxx shows a special prosecutor is needed in Brown’s pending case. | provided
