▶ Watch Video: More than 1,000 cases under review after Broadview Six misconduct allegations
More than 1,000 grand jury presentations are under review after federal prosecutors in Chicago were forced to dismiss charges in the “Broadview Six” case due to grand jury abuses and prosecutorial misconduct, the top federal prosecutor in the district said Wednesday.
Speaking to the media in Washington, D.C., at an unrelated press conference, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois said his office is scrutinizing prosecutorial conduct in cases that date back as far as 2007, as part of an effort to shore up confidence in the grand jury process.
“When this is all said and done, I will tell you that well over 1,000 grand jury presentations will be reviewed in the Northern District of Illinois,” Boutros said.
“They will both be retroactive, looking at what happened in some cases going all the way back almost 20 years. It will cover everything that is happening now that’s pending in court.”
Many of the federal cases now under review ended with decadeslong prison sentences, which could open the door to possible exonerations.
He said the review of current cases is designed to instill confidence in the system and ensure those cases are not suffering from the same issues as seen with the Broadview Six — a case involving a group of protesters who were arrested outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, last fall.
Boutros has faced mounting scrutiny after revelations of prosecutorial misconduct came to light in recent months.
The case fell apart after U.S. District Judge April Perry took the rare step of unsealing usually secret grand jury transcripts which revealed prosecutors had engaged in inappropriate conduct when securing the indictment against the protesters.
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At the center of the scandal is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg, who left to take a job working for Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. The grand jury transcripts showed that she improperly “vouched” for the strength of the evidence against the defendants, dismissed grand jurors who disagreed with the allegations, and improperly contacted one grand juror outside of official proceedings.
Durbin has since fired her from her post.
Boutros, in response to the revelations, announced he has instituted a remediation plan. Part of that plan entails new reforms that Boutros said create “very bright lines” about when prosecutors need to turn over grand jury material and under what circumstances.
The second part of the plan entails the extensive review of prior cases, including those handled by Mecklenburg as well as by other prosecutors in the office, he said.
“It’s going to be a massive review, a comprehensive review, and it is underway.”
In a filing last week by Boutros moving to dismiss charges against four men in a 2018 arson case, the prosecutor said Mecklenburg told grand jurors in a case in 2025, “we can prove this case,” “we don’t catch the smart ones,” and “most of them aren’t as smart as they think.”
CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller, who has represented clients in cases involving Mecklenburg and also worked with her on outside projects, said reestablishing trust with judges is the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s top job now.
“I’ve never seen it happen before and the U.S. Attorney knows it was a major, major mistake, and is trying to correct it right now,” Miller said. “The question is, can it be corrected?”
Ten defendants in three cases have seen their cases dropped so far because of this, and it’s unclear how many more cases could be dropped moving forward.
CBS News Chicago reached out to Mecklenburg through her attorney and was told she has no comment.