The bribery trial of Cook County Circuit Court Judge Richard F. LeFevour was postponed Thursday after his lawyers reported he was ill.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle delayed the trial until Monday after Patrick Tuite, one of LeFevour`s lawyers, said his client was scheduled to see a doctor for treatment of a liver ailment.
LeFevour normally takes medication for the liver ailment, but because it causes excessive drowsiness, the judge has not been taking it since the trial began May 20, Tuite said.
LeFevour told his lawyers Wednesday night that he was feeling too ill to come to court for the trial, Tuite said.
When the trial resumes, the government`s final witness, an Internal Revenue Service agent, is scheduled to testify about the financial analysis of the spending habits of LeFevour and his family. The prosecution has charged that LeFevour spent tens of thousands of dollars more than he legitimately earned from 1978 through 1982.
In testimony Wednesday prosecutors disclosed that LeFevour did not report $24,500 in loans, including $2,000 he received from Circuit Judge Jill McNulty, on his economic interest statements until after the federal Operation Greylord investigation became public.
They were among $51,800 in loans that LeFevour received from 1978 through 1982, according to records introduced in LeFevour`s trial on charges of racketeering, mail fraud and income tax fraud.
In addition, federal prosecutors Candace Fabri and Dan Webb read documents to the jury indicating that in December, 1981, LeFevour solicited and received $6,000 in loans from lawyers to pay for his mother`s hospital bills, though the costs were covered by insurance.
LeFevour approached attorney Walter M. Ketchum and asked for $10,000 to defray the hospital bills of his mother, Evelyn, who died a month later, according to the documents. Ketchum lent LeFevour $2,000 and four other lawyers lent him $1,000 each, according to the documents. None of those five loans has been repaid, the government said.
The documents were presented as part of the government`s effort to show that from 1978 through 1982 LeFevour spent about $140,000 more than he earned through legitimate sources of income.
LeFevour, 53, was chief Traffic Court judge from 1972 to 1981 and is on leave from his $65,500-a-year job as chief judge of the 1st Municipal District. He is accused of taking $25,000 to fix parking tickets and drunken- driving cases and $2,000 a month for about two years from a group of lawyers who allegedly were allowed to solicit clients in certain courtrooms.
Economic interest statements filed by LeFevour under seal with the administrative office of the Illinois courts are required to contain all loans of more than $1,000.
According to the documents, LeFevour received a $3,000 loan from McNulty in June, 1982, but did not list the loan on his 1983 economic statement. McNulty was a deputy under LeFevour when he was chief judge of the 1st Municipal District. She is now assigned to Domestic Relations Court.
Other loans that LeFevour failed to list until after the investigation became known, according to the documents, are:
— Loans of $2,500 in April, 1981, and $2,000 in April, 1982, from attorney Samuel V.P. Banks.
— Loans of $500 to $2,000 each for a total of $6,800 from Ketchum in 1981, plus two $1,000 loans in 1978 and 1982 not required to be reported.
— A loan of $5,000 in August, 1982, from Tuite.
— A loan of $10,000 from former Chicago Bears quarterback Sid Luckman in July, 1982.
Only the loan from Tuite has been repaid, according to the government.
According to the documents, other loans to LeFevour include two for $5,000 in 1983 from James Riley, a partner in the advertising firm of Weber, Cohn & Riley, 444 N. Michigan Ave.; $5,000 from Jack Ahern, a city employee, in 1981; and $2,000 from Circuit Judge Frank V. Salerno in 1983. Salerno was reassigned from License Court to Eviction Court in February after disclosures that a federal grand jury was investigating the city licensing department and allegations of payoffs.
Four loans of $1,000 each came from lawyers solicited by Ketchum, according to the documents. Those lawyers were identified as Philip Corboy, William J. Harte, William Maddux and James Madler.
