Court orders Daley cronies to prison
HIRED TRUCK | Ruling on patronage hiring convictions could jump-start gov probe
The federal appellate court in Chicago Tuesday upheld the conviction of four men charged with running the patronage hiring system in Mayor Daley's City Hall.
The ruling sent waves of angst through City Hall, Gov. Blagojevich's office and other government offices where some had hoped the court would find the age-old practice of giving plum government jobs to cronies was legal.
(Sun-Times files)
The four men, led by Daley's patronage chief Robert Sorich, argued that since the men did not personally profit from the scheme, it wasn't "mail fraud." The court unanimously ruled that it was -- even if the men thought it a fine Chicago tradition to falsify documents to give city jobs to clouted candidates over qualified candidates.
"Robin Hood may be a noble criminal, but he is still a criminal," Judge Ann Claire Williams wrote.
The ruling appears to give a green light to ongoing federal investigations of city, state and county government.
"It is hard to take too seriously the contention that the defendants did not know that by creating a false hiring scheme that provided thousands of lucrative city jobs to political cronies, falsifying documents and lying repeatedly about what they were doing, they were perpetrating a fraud," Williams wrote.
The decision triggered immediate anxiety within Blagojevich's inner circle Tuesday because of the likelihood it could embolden the feds to now aggressively pursue hiring fraud charges against former high-level aides to the governor.
That vein of the federal probe into Blagojevich has been quiet -- at least publicly -- since U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald indicated in June 2006 that his office was investigating charges of "endemic hiring fraud" within the governor's administration.
"I'm sure there are certain people now who are concerned," a Blagojevich loyalist told the Sun-Times.
The conviction hits very close to home for Mayor Daley, a neighbor and family friend to Sorich and his codefendants -- Patrick Slattery and Tim McCarthy, who all grew up in or near Bridgeport. Sorich was once the driver for Daley's brother, John.
Though the highest court in Chicago basically called Daley's hiring office a fraud in the decision, Daley twice refused to take reporters' questions on the ruling at two separate events Tuesday. He read a statement saying, "The court has made its decision, and there is nothing I can add to the legal debate."
He said the city has "moved forward" since the investigation started. "I also must express my concern for the individuals and their families who have been involved in this case," he said.
A Sun-Times investigation that revealed widespread waste and corruption in the $40 million-a-year "hired truck" program started the ball rolling.
Judge Williams noted that, "At that early point in the investigation, the agents focused their questioning on the city 'hired truck' scandal, which turned out to be the wedge that allowed prosecutors to split the log of fraudulent city hiring."
The ruling restarts the prosecution of former Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, which had been on hold.
Patrick Collins, the lead prosecutor in the Sorich case who is now in private practice, welcomed the ruling.
"In my opinion, the decision that came down today blessed the aggressive posture that the U.S. Attorney's office has taken in corruption cases," he said. "A contrary decision would have had a chilling effect on the future cases considered by the U.S. Attorney's office."
Prosecutors were fearful -- and defense attorneys hopeful -- that the court might throw out the convictions based on a decision last year tossing out a conviction of an aide to the governor of Wisconsin.
"The court went out of its way to distinguish the Sorich case from [the Wisconsin case]," Collins said. "It focused on the massive and systemic nature of the scheme, compared to the sporadic and episodic corruption in [Wisconsin.]"
Williams also wrote, "By setting up a false bureaucracy, the defendants arguably cheated the city out of hundreds of millions of dollars."
Contributing: Natasha Korecki and Dave McKinney
