SPRINGFIELD – Fourth District appellate judges threw out a criminal conviction due to a conflict of interest between Coles County public defender Teresa Matthews and her daughter, prosecutor Maggie Wilson.
On Sept. 6, they ruled that defendant Tyler Abbott could withdraw a plea that Matthews and Wilson negotiated while he didn’t know about their family tie.
“We can surmise no closer contemporaneous association between the defense and the prosecution than one of mother and child," Justice Peter Cavanagh wrote.
“Unlike a relationship between a client and counsel or an employer and employee, the familial relationship presented here is and will be forever ongoing.”
Abbott allegedly punched wife Haley in the face in 2019, causing a cut above her eye.
Nine days later, on advice of Matthews, he pleaded guilty of domestic battery.
Circuit Judge James Glenn ordered 180 days in jail and two years on probation.
Glenn did not admonish Abbott about his right to vacate the plea, and Matthews didn’t bring the oversight to his attention.
In 2020, State’s Attorney Jesse Danley moved to revoke Abbott’s probation.
A different public defender represented Abbott and, as Cavanagh put it, “was made aware of the relationship.”
Abbott moved to vacate his conviction, claiming he was innocent and told Matthews he was.
His counsel attached an affidavit of Circuit Judge Brien O’Brien in a similar case.
O’Brien acknowledged knowing about the relationship and stated he asked Danley about the potential for a conflict of interest.
“According to Judge O’Brien, Danley advised he or someone in his office had looked into the issue and there was no conflict of interest," Cavanagh wrote,
“Judge O’Brien continued to preside over numerous criminal misdemeanor cases with the mother and daughter on opposing sides.
“Judge O’Brien never advised any defendant of the familial relationship.”
Glenn dismissed the petition as untimely.
Abbott moved to set aside judgment based on fraudulent concealment of a conflict and on innocence.
At a hearing in 2021, Abbott’s counsel stated he had evidence in the form of a text message acknowledging he wasn’t the aggressor.
Glenn ruled that Abbott failed to establish that Matthews labored under a conflict.
He said her representation wasn’t directly adverse to any other client and wasn’t limited in any way by personal interests.
He said Abbott’s motion could go forward on the claim of innocence.
Abbott amended the motion to introduce text messages and to assert that Glenn should have admonished him of his right to vacate his plea.
Glenn found the text messages probably wouldn’t change the result.
Because he hadn’t admonished Abbott about his right to vacate his plea, he admonished him about his appellate rights.
Abbott moved to withdraw his plea, claiming automatic ground for reversal.
Glenn denied it, finding the plea agreement fair and reasonable.
On review at the Fourth District, state appellate prosecutor Douglas Malcolm denied a conflict of interest.
He claimed the appellate court lacked jurisdiction because time ran out for the withdrawal motion.
Fourth District judges found they had jurisdiction.
“Dismissal of an appeal based on a defendant’s failure to file the requisite motion in a timely manner in the trial court would violate due process if the defendant did not know that filing such motions was necessary," Cavanagh wrote.
Next, the judges examined the family tie.
Cavanagh found Illinois recognizes actual and “per se” conflicts.
“A per se conflict of interest exists when specific facts about the defense attorney’s status, by themselves, create a disabling conflict," he wrote.
He found a per se conflicts exists when counsel has a contemporaneous association with a victim or the prosecution.
“That is, a per se conflict arises when defense counsel has a connection to a person or entity that would benefit from an unfavorable verdict for the defendant,” he wrote.
“If a per se conflict is found, the defendant is not required to show the conflict affected the attorney’s actual performance.”
He found it reasonable to assume a parent expressly or implicitly wants her daughter to be successful.
“Unfortunately in this instance, to do so she must achieve a result which could be seen as unfavorable to the defendant," he wrote.
He found a conflict might affect performance in ways difficult to detect.
He found Matthews’s failure to ensure Abbott was properly admonished further demonstrated her advice might not have considered his best interests.
State appellate defender Ryan Wilson represented Abbott at the Fourth District.
Cavanagh didn’t identify the lawyer who opened Abbott’s eyes to the family tie.