Crime

Suffolk County assistant DA placed on leave after wrongfully convicted man submits complaint over withheld evidence

“You hurt me Mr. Lee, and I pray you’re not in a position to ever hurt anyone else.”

Robert Foxworth, who spent nearly 30 years in prison for murder until he was exonerated in December 2020, just moved into his own apartment. Suzanne Kreiter / The Boston Globe

By Madeleine Aitken

2 minutes to read

A wrongfully convicted man who spent nearly 30 years in prison has filed a complaint to the Board of Bar Overseers against Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, triggering his being placed on leave from the office.

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Lee, a Suffolk County homicide prosecutor, allegedly withheld information he learned from a federal informant that the man, Robert Foxworth, was innocent, causing him to serve a dozen additional years in prison. Foxworth was arrested in 1991 for the first degree murder of Kenneth McLean; he was released from prison on Dec. 23, 2020 and his conviction was vacated early in 2021. 

The complaint alleges that evidence of Foxworth’s innocence was brought to Lee in 2012, and that he knew such evidence existed possibly as early as 2007. Lee participated in an interview of a federal informant who told him and others that he knew Foxworth was not guilty because he instead was involved in the murder. 

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“Mark Lee’s misconduct delayed, for nearly nine years, the administration of justice that led to Robert Foxworth’s release from prison in 2020 and his subsequent exoneration in 2021,” Amy M. Belger, Foxworth’s attorney, said in the complaint.

In 2012, when Belger began pressing officials about the evidence, she said Lee “delayed, obstructed, and interfered” with efforts to obtain the evidence.

The complaint also includes a letter from Foxworth detailing the pain caused by Lee’s alleged actions. 

“I was severely traumatized being put back in prison to serve a life sentence for a crime I knew nothing about,” he said. “But my hope, my heartbeat, my pulse was hinging on that federal information that cleared me of this murder.” 

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He said he expected it to take a couple months, until he realized their priorities. 

“It was about them covering up illegal acts by colleagues and to save their colleagues’ name and reputations, I had to forfeit my life,” Foxworth said. 

Belger encouraged the public to read the complaint, and said that although Lee’s attorneys have declared the complaint to be “‘simply baseless,’” the evidence is there for those who want to see it. 

“You do not have to be a lawyer to understand the basis for what is in that complaint. You only need to be one thing: literate. Nothing in that complaint hinges upon my credibility. The documents speak for themselves,” Belger said. 

Lee was placed on leave with pay Thursday and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an investigation into his conduct with an outside firm. They did not respond to a request for comment.

As deputy chief of the homicide unit, Lee has played a role in high profile work, including helping prosecute former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez’s murder case.

The Board of Bar Overseers will also conduct an investigation. 

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Foxworth, in the letter, said he will never forget hearing the news that withheld evidence was the reason it took him so long to be released from prison. 

“Mark Lee you played a major role in crippling me in life. I did you no wrong, I never met you, never hurt you, never done anything to you,” Foxworth said. “You hurt me Mr. Lee, and I pray you’re not in a position to ever hurt anyone else.”

Read the full complaint here:

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