A high-profile Suffolk County homicide prosecutor has been suspended amid allegations he withheld evidence that could have freed a man who had been wrongly convicted of murder.
That man, Robert Foxworth, who was ultimately exonerated in 2021, served an additional nine years in prison after prosecutor Mark Lee learned from a federal informant that Foxworth was innocent, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the Board of Bar Overseers. During those nine years, Foxworth’s mother died and he was not allowed to attend the funeral.
“Mark Lee, you played a major role in crippling me in life,” Foxworth wrote in the complaint to the bar overseers, which investigates complaints against lawyers. Foxworth accused Lee of defying his obligations and oath as a prosecutor to “keep me incarcerated … [and] stand by and watch me slowly die in prison.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden said in a statement Lee was placed on paid leave Thursday and that the office was launching its own probe of the allegations. The district attorney’s office had hired John Benzan of Comprehensive Investigations and Consulting to investigate, according to the statement.
The Board of Bar Overseers will conduct its own investigation, which could take a year or more.
In a statement, Lee said he understood the need for transparency in any criminal prosecution and welcomed the review. “I expect that once a review has been completed, I will return to doing the job I have proudly done for 25 years,” Lee said.
Lee’s attorneys, Tom Hoopes and Elizabeth N. Mulvey, described their client as a “prosecutor of high ethical standards” and said that the complaint against him was “simply baseless.”
Lee is deputy chief of the homicide unit. His high profile work included helping prosecute a murder case against former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez.
Lee did not prosecute the original case against Foxworth, who was convicted of a 1991 killing in Roxbury of Kenneth McLean. The sole eyewitness initially only identified Foxworth from a photo array after being told by police that the suspect had a pony tail, according to court documents. Foxworth was the only man in the group of photos with a ponytail.
After his conviction, Foxworth maintained his innocence. He was released for 18 months by a federal court as his conviction came under scrutiny, but he was ultimately sent back to prison.
The key moment involving Lee was in March 2007, when the prosecutor participated in an interview of a federal informant, according to Foxworth’s complaint. The informant told Lee and others that he knew Foxworth did not commit the murder, according to the complaint, because he himself had been involved and knew the circumstances.
Lee recognized the significance of what he had learned because he ordered Foxworth’s file from the DA’s archives and told others in the office they needed to investigate, according to the complaint. But Lee never followed through on his obligation to notify a judge and Foxworth of the evidence.
Over the ensuing years, Foxworth’s attorneys pressed Lee and other law enforcement officials about the evidence provided by the federal informant. Foxworth’s attorney alleged that not only did Lee fail to provide the information, but he “delayed, obstructed, and interfered” with efforts to obtain the evidence, according to the complaint.
“Mark Lee’s misconduct was directly responsible for Robert’s almost nine years of excessive incarceration,” said one of Foxworth’s attorneys, Amy M. Belger. " We don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
Reached Friday evening by phone, Foxworth said he would march with a picket sign outside the district attorney’s office to stop Lee from wielding power as a prosecutor.
“He had this evidence. He had it!” Foxworth said. “It’s not right! He took an oath.”
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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