A former top prosecutor in an expansive federal street-gang prosecution could wind up on the witness stand in the coming weeks, just as his former colleagues are preparing to take the case he once led to trial all over again.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin agreed to the hearing Wednesday, calling it an “extraordinary granting” of an “extraordinary request.”
It’s also the latest twist in the case of accused Wicked Town street gang leader Donald Lee and alleged gang shooter Torance Benson. The men were convicted after a lengthy trial in 2022, but Durkin ordered a new trial earlier this year. Jury selection is set for Tuesday.
Prosecutors say Lee led a gang that “wreaked havoc” on Chicago’s West Side, flooding the streets with drugs and terrorizing citizens through “heinous acts of violence” including murder. The verdict in the 2022 trial tied Lee and Benson to seven killings.
Durkin agreed to the new trial after defense attorneys discovered emails by former Assistant U.S. Attorney John Mitchell. The judge found that they contained promises to cooperating witnesses in the case that weren’t turned over to the defense attorneys before trial.
That’s why, when Durkin took the bench for a pretrial hearing Wednesday, he told the courtroom he was “shocked” to learn about yet another Mitchell email that had been turned over to defense attorneys just a few days ago.
That prompted a lengthy discussion about how to make sure defense attorneys for Lee and Benson have all the evidence they’re entitled to before they have to cross-examine key witnesses in the case — with jury selection only days away.
It also prompted an appearance by newly promoted First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan. Durkin said he’d summoned Yonan to the courtroom to help sort things out. If the latest Mitchell email hadn’t been disclosed in time, the judge said, “we’d be doing a third trial.”
Mitchell did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.
Much of the debate revolved around an email allegedly written by Mitchell to the Cook County public defender’s office, regarding a group of witnesses who were in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmy Arce told the judge it had been written around May 2023, roughly six months after the verdict in the 2022 trial.
Mitchell allegedly sought to have a public defender appointed for each of the so-called “IDOC witnesses” so they could pursue a sentence reduction.
“I believe that each [IDOC witness] would be happy with a sentence reduction that allowed them to come home 3 years earlier than they otherwise would,” Mitchell allegedly wrote. “I can provide a letter or personally appear before a Cook County Judge to explain the importance of the trial testimony.”
In a motion filed Tuesday seeking an evidentiary hearing, attorneys for Lee and Benson told the judge that, “at no point were defense counsel ever notified that the government had planned to recommend a three-year sentencing reduction for each of the IDOC witnesses.”
Lisa Wood, one of Lee’s attorneys, also told the judge Wednesday that it’s “very unlikely” Mitchell’s three-year reference “came out of nowhere.”
When Durkin asked prosecutors where the number came from, Arce told the judge, “we discussed that internally. I don’t know.”
Arce also explained that a previous search of Mitchell’s emails focused on co-defendants of Lee and Benson who were charged, pleaded guilty and testified against them at trial. That’s why the email at issue Wednesday hadn’t previously been flagged.
Yonan and Arce also argued that, now that the email has been disclosed, defense attorneys will be able to use it during cross-examination at trial.
But Wood said there are signs that promises had been made orally to people who testified against Lee and Benson, and she said a hearing would be the “best way” to sort it out.
Durkin agreed to the hearing, explaining that it will likely be scheduled early in the morning in the coming weeks, before jury selection or trial testimony. He said defense attorneys would be allowed to summon Mitchell to the stand, as well as an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who worked the case.