Chicago US Attorney Picks Land at Key Moment on Guns, Corruption

The White House is vetting two finalists for Chicago’s chief prosecutor who’d be historically diverse leaders at a critical juncture in combating public corruption and rising street crime punctuated by gun violence.

Either Sergio Acosta or April Perry, who were recommended Monday by Illinois’ two Democratic US senators, would be the first non-White male leaders in the Chicago US attorney’s office’s 165-year history. It’s a significant development for a city with entrenched mistrust of law enforcement among communities of color, former prosecutors say.

Both finalists have deep Chicago prosecuting experience that would be instantly relied upon in office. The next US attorney in the Northern District of Illinois must wade into gun violence debates, form relationships with a new mayor and police superintendent, and preside over at least two of Chicago’s biggest public corruption trials in recent history.

“Chicago is just a very complex city in which to engage in law enforcement. There’s the politics of it, which can become fraught, and then there’s the challenges of being in law enforcement in Chicago because of the crime that we have,” said Sharon Fairley, a University of Chicago Law School professor and former line prosecutor in the office.

“That requires a strong leader who knows where to place his or her resources, knows what battles to fight, and knows how to collaborate with the other law enforcement entities in the city,” Fairley said.

Acosta, a Latino who was general crimes chief in the Northern District, and Perry, who is White and previously coordinated the office’s work under initiatives to stop child sexual abuse and domestic violence, both now work in the private sector.

‘Wall of White Men’

Since Trump-era holdover John Lausch announced plans to leave this month the Chicago legal community has anticipated what they’ve said is the long overdue nomination of a woman or person of color.

The Chicago-based district’s recent history with multiple women and minorities in supervisory roles, many of whom then gained stature as litigators opposite the government, heightened frustration that it’s taken this long.

Former line prosecutors described a jarring sight in the district’s front office: a hall of portraits of past US attorneys in Chicago that’s referred to in jest as the “wall of White men.”

“It’s a daily reminder, whenever you’re in the front office, of who’s been running things,” said Renai Rodney, a counsel at Ropes & Gray and former assistant US attorney in Chicago.

For residents to see a diverse US attorney, “it may become less of an ‘us against them,’” Rodney said. “It helps to know that roles like that are attainable, especially when it’s primarily communities of color who occupy the defendant space when you’re looking at violent crime, drug crime.”

Gun Violence

The next Senate-confirmed US attorney will step into a tense public debate on the role of federal prosecutors in tackling Chicago’s history with gun violence and gangs.

Lausch received credit in some circles and criticism in others for bolstering the federal office’s presence in violent crime rather than deferring to state’s attorneys and other law enforcement agencies.

A new US attorney will have an opportunity to reassess this strategy.

Some past prosecutors said Lausch’s emphasis on charging prior felons with unlawful weapons possession devoted precious resources to cases against older, less dangerous individuals, instead of pursuing more time-intensive RICO investigations targeting gang leaders.

Making changes may require buy-in from other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, like the Chicago Police Department, which have benefited from statistical upticks in gun arrests and convictions. Also, Chicago will soon elect a new mayor, who’ll then be responsible for replacing the recently-departed police superintendent.

“So much of the effectiveness of a prosecutor depends on his or her ability to work together with his or her law enforcement partners. We’re going to have new folks at the helm,” said Patrick Collins, a former prosecutor in the office who’s now a partner at King & Spalding. “It’s going to put a premium on the communication and leadership skills of the new leader, that they can forge a good relationship.”

Both Perry, a senior counsel at GE Healthcare who recently held senior roles in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, and Acosta, now co-chief of the white-collar practice at 24-office law firm Akerman, have experience navigating tough relationships across bureaucracies, past colleagues say.

Political Corruption

The US attorney will inherit trials involving well-known former elected officials accused of hatching a bribery scheme with the Chicago-headquartered utility ComEd.

Those trials, the first of which got underway last week, figure prominently in the public narrative over the chief prosecutor’s selection. Yet former attorneys in the office debate how much of a role Lausch’s successor will play in managing long-running investigations

The line prosecutors and supervisors will continue to litigate the charges against a former Illinois House speaker and a longtime alderman, among others, with an ambiguous level of input—if any—from the next US attorney, according to former prosecutors.

While some believe the incoming leader may still make final charging decisions as new information is unearthed and serve as the public face of the prosecutions, others, such as former state court judge and Chicago prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes, said they’d sit out the matters entirely.

Even an attorney with zero involvement in the ComEd and related investigations would probably recuse because “they were not in the office when all that stuff happened and they don’t want to have their thumb on it,” said Holmes, the managing partner of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.

Regardless, the Northern District has a long history of charging the state’s public officials, including four imprisoned past governors, that will keep corruption enforcement a top priority.

“It’s a persistent problem,” said Rachel Cannon, a former assistant US attorney in Chicago who’s now a partner at Steptoe & Johnson. “It’s the US attorney’s job to continue to ensure that wayward public officials are held accountable.”

—With assistance from Stephen Joyce