HDO leader charged

Clouted worker accused of lying to grand jury

A leader of the Hispanic Democratic Organization was charged Friday with lying to a grand jury -- a clear sign federal investigators are zeroing in on the powerful political group Mayor Daley created.

John Resa -- a water department worker and HDO coordinator -- was charged with lying to a federal grand jury even though he was given immunity to testify about HDO activities and members. Prosecutors say Resa lied when he said he never went up the political ladder to help HDO volunteers land city jobs and promotions.

John Resa -- a water department worker and HDO coordinator -- was charged with lying to a federal grand jury even though he was given immunity to testify about HDO activities and members. Prosecutors say Resa lied when he said he never went up the political ladder to help HDO volunteers land city jobs and promotions.

Resa, 48, a Southeast Side political coordinator for HDO, is the first member of the organization to be charged in the federal probe of City Hall hiring that grew out of the Hired Truck scandal. So far, 45 people have been charged. Resa pleaded not guilty Friday when he appeared in federal court with his lawyer, Jack Callahan Jr.

The indictment reveals the feds are probing hiring and promotion fraud under HDO, created in the early 1990s and now about 500 members strong. Though Resa is charged with one count of lying, the indictment lays out HDO's structure, its voter outreach efforts and an allegation of a broader scheme to reward its volunteers with jobs and promotions.

"This is part of a bigger investigation that does allege a scheme," Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins said.

Collins said Resa headed an HDO political army made up of 70 to 80 volunteers.

When Resa wanted to reward them with city jobs or promotions, he went to a former high-ranking city official for help, identified as "Individual A," who headed HDO's southeast division, according to the charges. Sources say the individual is former Streets and Sanitation commissioner and HDO lieutenant Al Sanchez, sources say.

Sanchez sponsored Resa and other Resa relatives who got city jobs, according to a clout list kept by the mayor's patronage director.The list was introduced as evidence in this summer's City Hall hiring trial of the mayor's former patronage chief Robert Sorich.

The scheme laid out in Resa's indictment follows a pattern similar to the one that ensnared Sorich and three others, who were convicted in a job-rigging scheme.

Resa allegedly lied Oct. 19, the first day of a series of articles in the Chicago Sun-Times featuring Resa and other city workers who had been on disability leave for years.

Resa -- a heavy equipment operator -- missed more than 1,100 days of work since April 16, 2003, because he claimed he injured his neck, back and left arm when a city truck struck a viaduct. Resa has collected more than $140,000 in disability payments.

Resa was deemed well enough to return to work in a less physically demanding job, but he remained on disability leave because the city couldn't find him an appropriate job. After the series ran, city officials found Resa a job as a watchman on Nov. 15.

Collins wouldn't comment on whether the probe reaches into Resa's workers comp claims.

Daley created HDO, and its members campaign for him. The group is led by Victor Reyes, who once ran the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Reyes' name came up repeatedly in Sorich's trial.

Sanchez was forced out of his public post in June 2005 in the wake of the city hiring scandal. City Hall sources called Resa a constant companion of Sanchez.

"Al made him a big deal, and he ran around with Al all of the time. If Al showed up someplace, he was either with him or waiting for him," one source said. "He was the buffer between Al Sanchez and the common man. He was like the big shot in the 10th Ward."

Sanchez could not be reached for comment.

The City Council once honored Resa as a hero. In 2001, Resa and three other city sewer workers apprehended a man who had snatched a purse from a 72-year-old woman.