On Thursday, January 11, 2024, CWB Chicago reported that Cook County Judge Michael McHale removed Michelle Mbekeani as the prosecutor in the Dante Brown resentencing hearing due to a conflict of interest with her role running a for-profit business.

Brown had waited over ten years for reconsideration of his life without parole sentence for a double murder in 2009. On November 17, Judge McHale had initially granted Brown a new sentencing hearing, with the agreement of Assistant State’s Attorney Mbekeani, who heads the Conviction Review Unit.

However, Judge McHale vacated his own order on December 8 after reading a Chicago City Wire article detailing that Mbekeani was the founder and CEO of Periodsentence.com, a subscription service connecting attorneys to inmates making claims of innocence. The judge said he wanted more information on Mbekeani’s business arrangement before proceeding with Brown’s case.

At a hearing on January 11, Judge McHale questioned Mbekeani extensively about Periodsentence.com and determined that contrary to her previous statements, it was an active for-profit business incorporated in Illinois. Mbekeani had told CWB Chicago in December that the company was just an idea from a class project and was not legally formed, but the judge found active articles of incorporation listing Mbekeani as CEO, president, director, and registered agent of the company now called Due Tech Process Corporation.

Judge McHale removed Mbekeani from the Brown case, saying her role in running the business presented “a very disturbing appearance of impropriety” and a conflict of interest. As a prosecutor, she takes an oath to advocate for victims, but her private company’s work assisting defendants and their attorneys “blurred” those roles. The judge said Mbekeani gave “duplicitous, incomplete, evasive and untruthful” answers in court about the business.

While removing Mbekeani, Judge McHale also criticized State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, saying she “basically set [Mbekeani] up for failure” by appointing her to lead the Conviction Review Unit despite the “blatantly obvious conflict of interest.” McHale noted Foxx’s past troubled relationship with understanding conflicts of law.

The State’s Attorney’s Office is standing by Mbekeani, calling concerns about her business “unfounded” and saying they detract from the office’s “critical mission.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Linda Walls will now represent the prosecution in Dante Brown’s resentencing case scheduled for February 20. Brown maintains his 2009 life sentence for double murder should be reconsidered due to evidence of a coerced confession and allegations of withheld evidence. The conflict of interest removal of Mbekeani from his case further delays his pursuit of possible justice.

 

Source: CWB Chicago