Federal authorities hailed Monday’s conviction of former Gov. George Ryan as a validation of their efforts to change politics-as-usual in Illinois and punish officials who deprive the public of “honest services.”
“If they keep stealing, we’ll keep chasing them,” U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said. “I think people now know if you’re part of a corrupt conduct where one hand is taking care of the other and contracts are going to people, you don’t need to say the word `bribed’ out loud. I think people need to understand that we won’t be afraid to bring strong circumstantial cases into court.”
Prosecutors won’t have long to savor this victory. They will be tested again next month when four top aides to Mayor Richard Daley are scheduled to face trial on corruption charges related to City Hall hiring.
During closing arguments in Ryan’s trial, lead prosecutor Patrick Collins said to the jury, “You guys decide: Is this politics or is this crime?”
The jury found Ryan guilty on all 18 counts against him, including rewarding his political cronies with lucrative sweetheart deals in exchange for cash, gifts and vacations. Ryan’s lawyer had argued that “it’s no crime to help your friends.”
“The `that’s politics’ line no longer insulates you from prosecution,” Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) said. “The jury’s verdict is a clear indicator that politics as usual is no longer legally acceptable. That’s a seismic shift from the way some politicians conduct themselves in this state.”
“This is more than just a victory over George Ryan,” former federal prosecutor Walter Jones Jr. said. “This propels every other investigation into public corruption forward. It’s a snowball going downhill.”
Finding themselves potentially in the snowball’s path are not only Daley administration officials but also the political confidantes of Ryan’s successor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
In the charges against Daley’s aides, as in the Ryan prosecution and other high-profile local corruption cases in recent years, prosecutors have said they are going after government officials who robbed the public of “honest services.” Robert Grant, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Chicago, again invoked that concept after the convictions of Ryan and lobbyist Lawrence Warner.
“I hope that this case begins the end of political prostitution that seems to have been evident in the state of Illinois and brings the resurrection of honest government services in the state that so many people have demanded,” Grant said.
Monday’s verdict culminates the federal Operation Safe Road investigation, which began about nine years ago and yielded 75 convictions. But federal law enforcement authorities in Chicago continue to dig into allegations of corruption at several levels of government.
Investigators are looking into allegations of pay-to-play politics in the Blagojevich administration. Federal criminal grand jury subpoenas seeking hiring information have been delivered to several state agencies and the governor’s office.
At City Hall, prosecutors have charged 44 people–including 26 current or former city workers–in a scandal that began with corruption in the city’s Hired Truck Program. That probe has mushroomed into an investigation of hiring and promotion in the Daley administration, with prosecutors recently accusing officials of covering up a scheme designed to benefit the mayor’s political organization.
The Ryan verdict “puts everyone on notice who is involved in political wrongdoing,” said Neal O’Malley, former head of the FBI’s public corruption unit in Chicago. “They have to ask themselves, do I fight the odds and go to trial, or do I cooperate?”
Lawyers for the four Daley aides scheduled to go on trial May 10 said they are confident about presenting their clients’ defense to a jury. The defendants include Robert Sorich and Timothy McCarthy, who worked in the mayor’s office and have ties to the Daley family’s 11th Ward political base.
McCarthy’s lawyer, Patrick Deady, said the Ryan verdict is not necessarily bad news for the City Hall defendants. Deady noted that Ryan’s lawyers would attempt to appeal the verdict, likely citing the judge’s removal of two jurors for concealing their arrest records.
Yes, it’s a conviction, but it’s a conviction that has some serious baggage,” Deady said.
David Axelrod, a top political consultant to the mayor, said the latest developments did not have “any obvious bearing” on the fates of the indicted Daley administration officials.
“No one has alleged that Sorich personally profited,” he said. “To me, it’s a different set of facts than in the Ryan case.”
Ralph Meczyk, a veteran criminal defense lawyer, said media and prosecutors have groomed the public to believe that all politicians are crooked.
“Prosecutors have taken what were traditionally political acts and made them criminal,” Meczyk said. “Everyday, garden-variety acts–political patronage and helping your friends and supporters–are now crimes.”
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High-profile cases
A glance at some high-profile Illinois politicians whose careers were tainted by scandal:
GOVERNORS
Dan Walker (D)
Term: 1973-77
Convicted in 1987 of misusing funds from his failed First American Savings and Loan Association.
Otto Kerner (D)
Term: 1961-68
Convicted in 1973 of bribery, conspiracy, income-tax evasion, mail fraud and perjury in connection with money he earned from racetrack stock.
CONGRESSMEN
Dan Rostenkowski (D)
(U.S. representative, 1959-95)
Convicted in 1996 of using public funds to buy gifts for relatives and friends.
Pardoned in 2000 by President Bill Clinton.
Mel Reynolds (D)
(U.S. representative, 1993-95)
Convicted in 1995 on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old girl and in 1997 on federal fraud charges. Sentence commuted in 2001 by President Clinton.
STATEWIDE OFFICIALS
William Scott (R)
(Attorney general, 1969-80)
Convicted in 1980 of federal income-tax evasion.
Jerry Cosentino (D)
(Treasurer, 1979-83)
Convicted in 1992 on federal check kiting charges.
Orville Hodge (R)
(Auditor, 1953-56)
Convicted in 1956 on charges of embezzling state funds.
Paul Powell (D)
(Secretary of State, 1965-70)
Never convicted, Powell died in 1970 with $800,000 in cash in a shoebox in his hotel room.
ALDERMEN
Tom Keane
(1945-74)
Convicted in 1974 of mail fraud and conspiracy for using insider knowledge in a property scandal.
Larry Bloom
(1979-95)
Pleaded guilty in 1998 to a tax charge arising from corruption probe Operation Silver Shovel.
Fred Roti
(1968-91)
Convicted in 1993 of taking $10,000 for influencing a civil court case and $7,500 to support a zoning change.
Ambrosio Medrano
(1991-96)
Pleaded guility in 1996 to taking bribes from and placing cronies in no-work jobs on a City Council panel.
CHICAGO/COOK CO. OFFICIALS
Jim Laski (D)
(Chicago city clerk, 1995-2006)
Pleaded guilty this year to pocketing bribes for steering city business to trucking companies.
Miriam Santos (D)
(Chicago city treasurer, 1989-2000)
Pleaded guilty in 2000 to mail fraud and using city workers for politics on city time.
Edward Rosewell (D)
(Cook County treasurer, 1974-98)
Pleaded guilty in 1998 to hiring ghost payrollers while he was treasurer.
Source: Tribune reports
Chicago Tribune
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tlighty@tribune.com
dmihalopoulos@tribune.com
