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much of it covered by Mills in his fawning and unquestion- ing coverage of Northwestern and Protess. The Porter ex- oneration was based in part on reports of misconduct by two detectives in the case. The detectives were vindicated in a 2005 civil trial when the jury awarded no money for Porter, despite his exoneration.
And throughout this period, Mills remained completely silent about key evidence that pointed to Simon’s inno- cence and Porter’s guilt. He ignored, for example, an affi- davit by Thomas Epach, chief of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Criminal Division in 1999 when Porter was re- leased. An enraged Epach did not think that either Porter should have been released or Simon indicted until a thor- ough investigation of the original double homicide was re- viewed. Epach, the second in command at the prosecutor’s office, filed a sworn statement asserting that he was high- ly doubtful about Porter’s innocence and that Porter had been released for “political” considerations.
One wonders.
In the entire pattern of misconduct Simon’s attorneys have alleged against Northwestern, Protess and Ciolino, how did a journalist like Mills never see any of it?
When Northwestern released a bombshell statement in 2011 stating that the school’s onetime star professor was being prohibited from teaching at the school and admit- ted that he had misled the university and the local justice system, one wonders why Mills never uncovered evidence
of this conduct throughout the decades he covered the Northwestern exoneration claims.
Here is what Northwestern stated:
“In sum, Protess knowingly misrepresented the facts and his actions to the university, its attorneys and the dean of Medill on many documented occasions. He also misrepre- sented facts about these matters to students, alumni, the media and the public. He caused the university to take on what turned out to be an unsupportable case and unwit- tingly misrepresent the situation both to the court and to the state.”
But nothing matched what happened earlier this year.
In a narrative about the Porter exoneration crumbling in the face of mounting evidence and a trial looming in which this evidence would see the light of day, he made one last, desperate attempt to keep his myth about the Porter exon- eration alive.
He wrote a few articles citing a memo by a prosecutor under Anita Alvarez, Fabio Valentini, which purported to claim the Simon conviction for the murders was legitimate. Mills’ colleague and fellow wrongful conviction advocate, Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, joined in on claiming the memo was a bombshell.
But then no one bought it. Unlike decades earlier when Mills and Zorn reported what they said was a wrongful con- viction, no other media outlets jumped on the story. And the attorneys for Simon marched into court and said the memo, which was under a protective order that the defen- dants in the case, not Simon’s attorneys, had requested,
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