Campaign aide who helped prosecutors sentenced

Richard Juliano, 38, whose promising career in the Bush administration was derailed by the case, also was placed on probation for four years and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service.

Juliano was praised by U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer and federal prosecutors for telling the truth about corruption in government when Ryan was secretary of state for eight years in the 1990s.

Juliano was the leadoff witness at the racketeering trial of Ryan's longtime right-hand man, Scott Fawell, who now is serving a 61/2-year racketeering sentence for corruption in the secretary of state's office.

Fawell eventually became the leadoff witness against Ryan as federal prosecutors worked their way up the political food chain. The former governor has been sentenced to 61/2 years in prison for racketeering.

Juliano was the $131,000-a-year liaison between the Bush White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation until shortly before he was indicted. He pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud, admitting that he had schemed with Fawell to use state money and employees in Ryan's campaigns.

In imposing sentence, Pallmeyer reminded Juliano that he had taken part in the fraud after accepting assurances from Fawell that it was the way things were always done in Illinois politics.

Pallmeyer told him that those words ''should send up a red flag.'' She said he should have taken the advice she said he now gives young political operatives -- to get out of the campaign if anything corrupt is going on.

''Everything you do in public life will eventually come to light,'' she told Juliano, who admitted that he received state payments while doing campaign work and attending the University of Chicago law school.

Juliano attorney Jim Montana told reporters afterward that he was somewhat disappointed by the sentence.

''We had hoped that it would be straight probation but the judge did what she thought was appropriate,'' Montana said.

Federal probation officials in Virginia, where Juliano now lives, will determine some of the specifics. Pallmeyer ordered that he be confined nights and weekends but allowed to work during the day.