A state economic development adviser and a Springfield businessman were charged with bribery Tuesday for allegedly soliciting the sale of land to the state in exchange for $200,000 in payoffs to Gov.-elect Jim Edgar`s campaign and top state transportation officials, police and prosecutors said.
Arrested on bribery charges were James Johnson, 59, an economic development specialist for the state Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, and Elmer Knecht, 72, a businessman and landowner, police said.
Johnson also was charged with official misconduct.
Both men were freed from Sangamon County Jail on $50,000 bond.
A complaint filed by the Sangamon County state`s attorney`s office alleged that Johnson, representing Knecht, offered to sell the state a 66-acre parcel northeast of Springfield along Interstate Highway 55 for $3.5 million. The complaint said that in making the alleged solitication to Bob Orr, assistant to Transportation Secretary Michael Lane, Johnson offered $200,000 in bribes-$50,000 each to Orr and Lane and a $100,000 payment to Edgar`s campaign fund-if the sale was completed.
Orr notified Lane of the alleged solicitation and Lane, in turn, contacted the Illinois State Police, which conducted a two-week investigation leading up to the arrests.
Aides to Edgar were unavailable for comment, but there was no indication that his political campaign was aware of the alleged offer.
Payroll records filed with the state comptroller`s office show Johnson, of Springfield, entered state government in 1982 and was paid more than $43,000 a year as an economic development specialist in the marketing and communications department of the Commerce and Community Affairs Department.
Knecht and a business he owns have been the beneficiaries of a trust that owns a three-acre parcel the state Transportation Department has leased for $2,000 a month during the last five years to store portable scales and equipment to weigh trucks, state records showed.
Transportation officials said they were seeking to renew the lease, which expired in September, or to enter into a lease-purchase agreement for that site and two additional acres, but had no interest in the surrounding property when the alleged offer was made.
Transportation officials said they had terminated any further attempts to negotiate a new lease.
