State Rep. Larry Bullock (D., Chicago) testified Monday that he was asked by a federal prosecutor in August if he would cooperate with authorities in an investigation of Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th), Cook County Democratic Party chairman.
Testifying in his own defense at his misconduct trial in U.S. District Court, Bullock said he and his lawyers were summoned to the office of Walter Jones, a former assistant U.S. attorney now in private practice. Jones played tape-recordings of allegedly incriminating conversations and then asked Bullock if he would cooperate in an investigation of Vrdolyak, the state lawmaker said.
Bullock said Edward Genson, one of his attorneys at the time, was stunned and told Jones, ”We`ll get back to you.” That was the last time Bullock said he ever saw Jones.
Reached Monday night, Vrdolyak said he was ”not surprised” by the testimony and added: ”I just think that whole investigation was based around trying to induce people to say that I had done something wrong–and they couldn`t do it.”
Bullock has been allied with Vrdolyak in the fighting that has split the Democratic Party in Chicago and has been one of the most outspoken foes of Mayor Harold Washington in the black community.
The explosive testimony came at the end of Monday`s court session as Terence Gillespie, Bullock`s defense lawyer, concluded nearly five hours of questioning of Bullock. The meeting Aug. 9 in the Dirksen Federal Building involved Jones, Bullock and lawyers Genson and Jeff Steinbach. That the meeting occurred had been known, but this was the first time that a participant in the meeting unequivocally has acknowledged that Jones made the request.
Bullock has contended during his trial that his legal troubles result from an effort by authorities to gain his cooperation in their investigation of Vrdolyak.
Vrdolyak has not testified at Bullock`s trial, but his name has surfaced repeatedly in connection with an alleged plot by Bullock to use Vrdolyak to put Eugene Blackmon, a certified minority business entrepreneur, out of business.
Blackmon, a former Bullock business partner, testified last week as the chief prosecution witness against Bullock. Blackmon contended that during a January, 1985, meeting at Democratic Party headquarters in the Bismarck Hotel, Vrdolyak told Blackmon that he had derailed two business deals sought by Blackmon.
Blackmon said the ”deals” mentioned by Vrdolyak were a reference to two potentially lucrative agreements Blackmon`s construction company had cemented with two white-owned firms. One was an agreement with Prairie Materials Inc., Bridgeview, in which the ready-mix concrete hauling firm was to set Blackmon up in a concrete manufacturing firm of his own; the other was a joint venture with American Bridge Division to do work at O`Hare International Airport.
Blackmon testified that Prairie and American canceled their agreements with Blackmon`s firm–Blackmon Development Inc.–after the meeting with Vrdolyak and Bullock.
Bullock, 40, wearing glasses and a business suit, placed an innocent bent on government charges that he conspired with Vrdolyak to shove Blackmon into bankruptcy; accepted bribes; illegally diverted state funds to his personal use; and committed other crimes.
Bullock flatly denied that the criminal events took place or he accused Blackmon of plotting the crimes himself, or denied that his acts were criminal.
Throughout the afternoon, Bullock portrayed himself as an honorable lawmaker with genuine concerns for the great needs of the many poor, young and elderly residents who live in his 23d Legislative District on the Near South Side. By contrast, he depicted Blackmon as the true villain, accusing him of being a liar, a thief and a man who was so driven by greed that he effected shady, profitable deals with with an underworld figure.
But in earlier testimony, Pamela O`Brien, a legislative aide to Bullock, admitted to Assistant U.S. Atty. Candace Fabri that she committed forgery and lied on sworn affidavits in a failed attempt to gain certification as a minority business entrepeneur. She also conceded that while she was the majority stockholder in the firm, it was Bullock who capitalized the firm, attempted to negotiate contracts for it and attempted to obtain minority-business enterprise certification for it.
O`Brien testified that she forged the signature of Louvinia Burton on several bogus stock certificates and lied on affidavits she filed with various governmental agencies in an attempt to gain official certification for a firm known as April Construction and Supply Corp.
Burton, who is black, worked as a secretary in Bullock`s 23d Legislative District office at 2415 S. Michigan Ave.
O`Brien also conceded that although she claimed to be majority stockholder in April Construction, in fact the firm existed in name only and never obtained any contracts. Moreover, O`Brien said that the firm had been capitalized through a loan from Bullock and that it was the lawmaker who instructed her to fill out business documents and who negotiated contracts with white-owned firms.
Defense attorneys Sam Adam and Gillespie called O`Brien to the stand in an effort to rebut prosecution contentions that it was Bullock who set up April and controlled it, and that Bullock used O`Brien as a front to hide his interests in the firm. When questioned by Gillespie, O`Brien said she owned 80 percent of April, that the firm had offices in the Loop, and that she regularly was involved in negotiations to set up joint ventures with white-owned companies that were bidding on the McCormick Place expansion project.
She said she owned the company with three others, including Burton. She said she issued stock to Burton and the others and that she capitalized the firm with ”seed money” from her personal funds.
Under sometimes tense cross-examination by Fabri, however, O`Brien made the devastating admission that she had forged Burton`s signature on the stock certificates, and that she had signed affidavits that were false and filled out minority enterprise documents entirely at the instructions of Bullock.
