State`s Atty. Cecil Partee called for the appointment of a special prosecutor Wednesday to look into possible criminal wrongdoing by a longtime friend who received loans from an insurance company while he was a company officer.
The request fell short of a call by his Republican challenger, Jack O`Malley, for an investigation into Partee`s role in the loans.
Partee admitted holding a 50 percent interest in the questionable loans, but maintained he never knew his friend Hollis L. Green was an officer of Chicago Metropolitan Mutual Assurance Co. when the insurance company lent the two $95,000 in 1969 to buy a South Side apartment building.
”There has been no suggestion that my own activities in this matter were anything but lawful,” Partee said in requesting the special prosecutor. Thomas Fitzgerald, presiding judge of the Cook County Criminal Court, took the request under advisement, saying he will announce his decision July 9.
According to an Illinois Department of Insurance report, the loans to Green, a director, officer and general counsel of Chicago Metropolitan, possibly violated state law.
