Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros announced “sweeping internal reforms” Wednesday to his office’s grand jury practices, in the wake of the “Broadview Six” scandal that has shaken the city’s federal courthouse.
Boutros also announced that he and the Justice Department had taken “swift action related to internal personnel matters,” though he didn’t share additional details.
The “Broadview Six” case fell apart, days before trial, after a judge discovered improprieties during grand jury proceedings. The alleged misconduct came to light only after a lengthy push by defense attorneys to get the judge to review unredacted transcripts of what occurred.
The allegations included a prosecutor improperly putting her personal credibility on the line to support criminal charges, a prosecutor having substantive contact with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, and a prosecutor excusing grand jurors who disagreed with the case.
Boutros’ office said in a press release Wednesday that the new process “will be more transparent, effective, and impactful while greatly reducing the likelihood of mistakes and errors.” It also said “many” of the reforms “are being implemented for the first time anywhere in the country.”
Still, the most specific reform identified by Boutros was “extensive, deep-dive training from national experts outside the office.”
That’s perhaps because of the secrecy that traditionally surrounds the grand jury process.
“These remediations should also be deeply curative and put to rest once and for all the divergent practices that have existed across the office for decades, including from one assistant U.S. attorney to another as well as from one generation to the next,” Boutros said. “That’s because these are clear, bright line rules that everyone must abide by, which should streamline and simplify the decision-making and disclosure process, as opposed to bedevil it.”
Boutros also acknowledged that, as part of a previously announced review prompted by the “Broadview Six” case, defense attorneys in cases that might have been similarly tainted will receive transcripts — or “minutes” — from grand jury proceedings.
Charged in the “Broadview Six” case were former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and onetime Abughazaleh campaign worker Andre Martin.
They were accused of joining a larger crowd that surrounded an immigration agent’s vehicle last September. The crowd pushed, scratched and otherwise damaged the agent’s SUV. Of that crowd, federal prosecutors charged only six people, all largely involved in local Democratic politics, raising questions about selective prosecution and freedom of expression.
Charges were dropped against Sharp and Walsh in March. The remaining case was dismissed last week after it was reduced to a misdemeanor matter.
Questions have since emerged about a separate prosecution, involving former Loretto Hospital Chief Financial Officer Anosh Ahmed. Defense attorneys for a co-defendant of Ahmed’s are seeking permanent dismissal of the charges against their client, though no such motion has yet to be filed on behalf of Ahmed.
The former lead prosecutor in the “Broadview Six” case, Sheri Mecklenburg, also formerly handled the case against Ahmed. She left earlier this year to serve as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, though she’s since been terminated from that role. Also involved in the “Broadview Six” prosecution were assistant U.S. attorneys William Hogan, Matthew Skiba and Andres Almendarez.
After the revelations in the “Broadview Six” case went public, Boutros sent an internal email to his office calling the three remaining prosecutors “courageous” for fighting “long and hard for a case they inherited when a colleague departed the office.”