Ex-Gov. Ryan loses appeal
His sophisticated friends warned him the “fix was in,” but former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins said he was always confident a federal appeals court would uphold former Gov. George Ryan’s conviction on corruption charges.
“I trust the process,” Collins said today, adding, “There were gross breaches of the public trust by Mr. Ryan.”
The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6 to 3 not to let the full court rehear the appeal that Ryan lost earlier this year.
(AP file)
A three-judge minority, however, called the trial a “travesty” because of a “cascade of errors.”
Ryan, sentenced to 6 1/2 years behind bars, does not have to rush to prison this weekend. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer ruled he and co-defendant Larry Warner will have four business days to report to prison after the appeals court issues a final order in seven business days.
One of Ryan’s attorneys, former Gov. James Thompson, said weeks ago that Ryan’s legal team would fight the case “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Ryan and Warner are free on bond.
A jury convicted Ryan of racketeering and fraud for steering state contracts to politically connected pals. He funneled state money into his campaigns for governor and secretary of state. He also snuffed out a license-for-bribes investigation when he was secretary of state, jurors found.
Ryan, of Kankakee, declined to comment today.
Collins, the lead prosecutor, is now in private practice. At a news conference today, he insisted the trial was fair.
Speaking of Pallmeyer, he said “to the extent she made mistakes, I think she did it out of a sense of fairness to the defendants.”
“I would never call this a picture-perfect trial or anything close to that,” he said.
In a statement, the U.S. attorney’s office said it was pleased by today’s decision.
Today’s order from the six judges was brief and gave no explanation for their refusal to hear the case.
But in a 15-page dissent, three judges said a so-called ‘‘en banc’’ hearing of the entire court should be held on Ryan’s appeal. The three judges said they understood the majority believed any problems in the jury room were ‘‘harmless.’’
‘‘But harmlessness is not the test of reversible error when a cascade of errors turns a trial into a travesty,’’ the three judges said.
Ryan’s request for a new hearing, filed with the court Aug. 28, argued the questioning of jurors about tumultuous deliberations made them afraid of the government and thus destroyed their impartiality.
Two jurors were dismissed and replaced with alternates after eight days of deliberations and one juror brought an unauthorized legal document into the jury room, ignoring instructions to the contrary from the judge.
As Pallmeyer sought to understand what was happening in the jury room, jurors were brought in and questioned by the judge and the attorneys.
Prosecutors scoffed at the notion that jurors were intimidated by the questioning.
The snowy haired Ryan, 73, had been accused of steering state contracts to Warner and other political friends in exchange for benefits ranging from free vacations in Jamaica to a free golf bag.
Ryan also was accused of killing an investigation of bribes paid in exchange for driver’s licenses and using state money and employees to wage his political campaigns. The eight-year investigation began after six children in one family were killed in a highway disaster involving a truck driver whose Illinois license allegedly had been purchased with a bribe.
Ryan was secretary of state at the time. Prosecutors later traced thousands of dollars in bribes to the Citizens for Ryan campaign fund.
Operation Safe Road resulted not only in the conviction of Ryan and Warner but dozens of other state officials and lobbyists.
Collins blasted Ryan for putting his trust in a top aide, Scott Fawell, who is in prison for his role in the scandal.
Collins described Fawell as “Machiavellian.”
“Did [Ryan] trust Mr. Fawell with the keys to the kingdom?” Collins said. “No doubt.”
Contributing: AP