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Posted: Tuesday, 10 November 2009 3:05PM
Prosecutors Claim NU Students Paid Off Witness
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CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ― A legal battle between Northwestern University and Cook County prosecutors heated up Tuesday with the allegation that student journalists paid a witness in a murder case they were investigating in 2004 — cash that the witness later used to buy cocaine.
Northwestern's Center on Wrongful Convictions has filed a petition seeking to overturn the conviction of Anthony McKinney, who has spent 31 years in prison for the shotgun slaying of security guard Donald Lundahl in 1978 in Harvey.
Students in Northwestern's journalism and law programs were involved in investigating McKinney's claim that he was innocent.
To prepare for a future hearing on the petition, the Cook County state's attorney's office has subpoenaed records of the students' interviews with witnesses; e-mails between them and professor David Protess, who directs the university's Innocence Project; and even their grades.
The university refuses to turn over most of those records, citing the Illinois Reporters Privilege Act. But prosecutors say the students and a private investigator who worked with them are not journalists, did not publish their findings and "were not gathering news for a news medium'' — so their records are not protected.
McKinney's post-conviction petition says Northwestern University's Innocence Project obtained a videotaped statement from Anthony Drakes, who is now in prison for aggravated domestic battery. According to the petition, Drakes told student Evan Benn in 2004 that Drakes witnessed the murder and McKinney was not present.
Today, prosecutors filed a motion that claims that Drakes was paid off and used some of the money to buy crack cocaine.
Professional news organizations generally frown on paying for information.
According to the motion filed by prosecutors, Drakes, a convicted criminal and drug user, told investigators for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez that "he gave the students a video statement for money."
The Innocence Project team, including students and private investigator Sergio Seratella, went to Drakes' mother's home in 2004 and she told Drakes that a man with the students stood near the rear of a car and flashed a shotgun, the motion said.
According to the motion:
• Drakes said he let the Northwestern team members know he wanted money. He said he knew they wanted help in McKinney's case. The team members told Drakes they would not pay for a statement, but later one of the students flashed a wad of cash at him. Several hours later, Seratella said he would "take care of things" and a cab was called for Drakes.
• Drakes said he received money indirectly from the driver who was called. The school admits giving $60 to the driver for Drakes' fare to a Greyhound station. But the cabbie thought the transaction was strange — possibly a setup by police — so he recorded the odd transaction in his log, which prosecutors have obtained.
• The log said "detective gives me 60 told me to give him 40, gave me 60 . . . gave him change." Drakes told prosecutors he bought crack cocaine with the $40 in change. When he spoke to investigators for the state's attorney's office, Drakes recanted the video statement he made to the team.
Benn, who is now a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, today said he paid the cab driver, but instructed the driver not to give any money to Drakes. He said Seratella was with the students at the time, but didn't have anything to do with giving the driver money.
Outside court, Protess blasted the prosecutors' latest motion, saying, "it is so filled with factual errors that if my students had done this kind of reporting or investigating I would give them an 'F.' " He said the motion was part of "the state's continuing smear campaign against my students."
The state's attorney's office said it's not retaliating against the Innocence Project. The office has in the past cooperated with the Innocence Project as "part of this administration's ongoing commitment to investigate well-founded claims of wrongful conviction," according to the motion prosecutors filed.
Also today, Judge Diane Gordon Cannon chastised university attorney Richard O'Brien for what she called the "dripping sarcasm" in the court papers he filed.
"If you think you can come into a court of law and treat it as an editorial, a sandbox or a bar, you're wrong," the judge said.
O'Brien apologized but said he filed the papers in the same manner that he has always filed them.
The next hearing in the case was set for Jan. 11.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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