A conviction for a man serving a 45-year sentence for murder was “tainted by coercive police tactics” that later were not critically examined by Cook County assistant state’s attorneys who reviewed the case, according to a report from special prosecutors who reinvestigated the case at the behest of the state’s attorney’s office.
Kevin Jackson, 43, has maintained his innocence since he was convicted in the 2001 fatal shooting of 54-year-old Ernest Jenkins at a Southwest Side gas station, but his yearslong fight to overturn his conviction was dealt a blow last month when a Cook County judge denied his motion for a new trial, despite the request having no opposition from the state’s attorney’s office.
Judge Angela Petrone on Monday, though, allowed the unredacted release of a report of an investigation by special prosecutors Thomas Geraghty and Robert Owen, who were appointed by the state’s attorney’s office in September 2022. Jackson’s attorneys had for months objected to the state’s attorney’s office providing only a partial version of the report.
Released in its full form while an appeal of Petrone’s decision is pending, the report is sharply critical of the investigatory tactics of the Chicago police detectives who led the case, as well as the handling of the matter by the state’s attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
The office appointed Geraghty and Owen to review Jackson’s case after attorneys raised concerns about the impartiality of the Conviction Integrity Unit because of an assistant state’s attorney’s marriage to a detective who has been accused of coercing witnesses in Jackson’s and others’ cases. Assistant State’s Attorney Heather Hu was also assigned to aid in the effort.
The detectives, Brian Forberg and John Foster, have generated scrutiny in the past year with more than a dozen defendants accusing them of coercing and manipulating witnesses in order to close cases. Forberg was married to an assistant state’s attorney who worked closely with the Conviction Integrity Unit (now called the Conviction Review Unit), which reviews potential wrongful convictions.
The Conviction Integrity Unit previously found no merit to Jackson’s case, but his attorneys asked the office to take another look when the relationship between Forberg and the assistant state’s attorney, Kirsten Ann Olson, came to light. Olson died in 2022.
In a statement, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said it appointed the special prosecutors “commitment to transparency” due to a potential conflict of interest that arose during the original review.
“Based on those secondary findings, we did not oppose the post-conviction relief requested by Mr. Jackson’s attorneys,” the statement said. “The CCSAO remains committed to ensuring that our office’s practices are rooted in accountability, integrity, fairness, respect, and collaboration.”
Geraghty, Owen and Hu reinterviewed witnesses, reviewed case files and spoke with attorneys in the Conviction Integrity Unit, according to the report.
“This case presents a microcosm of the many ways in which a police investigation into a serious violent crime can fail,” the authors wrote.
The report urged the office to take steps to vacate Jackson’s conviction, finding an “unacceptably high likelihood” that witness statements had been coerced.
The report points out that the state’s case against Jackson in its entirety was based on statements that witnesses gave to detectives, only to then retract at trial, alleging a number of coercive tactics. One such witness was a pregnant woman who said the detectives threatened that she’d give birth to her child in jail and lose custody if she didn’t name their suspect, the report said.
It also said that detectives ignored evidence of a different perpetrator.
At one point, according to the report, jurors asked, “What is the law for hung jury?” After a second day of deliberating, though, the panel convicted Jackson.
Jackson had reached out to the state’s attorney’s office and Conviction Integrity Unit a number of times while serving his sentence, and the office had variously responded.
Eventually, former Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Rotert began investigating Jackson’s case, personally interviewing several witnesses, according to the report. He handed off the case prior to his retirement in 2021.
After Rotert’s departure from the case, the investigation lost steam and prosecutors issued a finding that there was not conclusive evidence of Jackson’s innocence, according to the report. The report said that after Rotert handed off the case, the prosecutors who took over did not interview two key witnesses, nor speak to the assistant state’s attorney who prosecuted Jackson.
“It is apparent to us that once ASA Rotert was no longer leading the review of Jackson’s case, the CIU’s investigation did not continue with the same vigor,” the report said.
Defense attorneys then asked Nancy Adduci, then head of the unit, to reconsider, the report said, but the request was denied. Adduci wrote that the review had been “thorough” and “complete.” Adduci was later demoted while under scrutiny due to her prosecution of defendants accused of shooting and killing Chicago police Officer Clifton Lewis in 2011.
The report further said the Conviction Integrity Unit failed to scrutinize the tactics used by Forberg and Foster. Though an assistant state’s attorney spoke with Forberg, the conversation was limited and did not address whether the detectives used pressure tactics to extract statements from witnesses, according to the report.
The state’s attorney’s office carried out the recommendation of Geraghty and Owen’s report and did not oppose Jackson’s request for a new trial.
Petrone, though, in denying the request, found Geraghty and Owen’s assessments of the civilian witnesses lacking, and said Jackson’s appeals have not uncovered evidence that is new, or couldn’t have been discovered at the time of the trial.
Still, Jackson, through his attorneys, said he is hopeful an appeal will pave the way for his release. He recalled Forberg telling him to look around because he would “never see these streets again.”
“I have had to live with hearing him say that in my head every night I have been in prison for the last 23 years. But I guess he’s wrong,” Jackson said. “I believe I will be free and see my neighborhood again soon.”