The names of five people called “unindicted co-conspirators” in the public aid scandal that rocked Gov. Jim Edgar’s administration must be made public, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
In a precedent-setting ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ordered the release of the names of the unindicted co-conspirators linked to the federal case involving Management Services of Illinois Inc.
“The public interest in disclosure outweighs the privacy interests of the co-conspirators,” the ruling said.
The Chicago Tribune and other news organizations fought to overturn a district court order that kept the names secret.
The new ruling could have a substantial impact on future cases, allowing the public to know the names of unindicted co-conspirators at the time of a trial rather than long after it is over, said Joe Thornton, an attorney for the news organizations.
The case, which concluded in 1998, will be returned to U.S. District Judge Richard Mills for release of the names. Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Chesley said no decision had been made on whether to appeal. Even without an appeal, it may be weeks before the names are made public.
Prosecutors alleged that MSI gained influence by making campaign contributions to Edgar and showering state workers with gifts, including cash to spend at a riverboat casino and a striptease joint in the Ozarks. Edgar never was accused of wrongdoing.
MSI was hired to help the state recover public aid health-care costs. Lucrative renegotiations of a contract helped increase MSI’s annual income from the state to $11.2 million in 1994 from $409,000 the previous year.
Three trials produced prison sentences for MSI’s two founders and two former mid-level workers in the Illinois Department of Public Aid.
