Jeff Fort’s relative sentenced to 14 years; wife claims FBI vendetta

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Updated: February 28, 2012 8:19AM

The wife of a personal trainer told a federal judge she thinks the government carried out a vendetta against her husband because of his family ties to infamous Chicago gang leader Jeff Fort.

Johnny Fort, a 46-year-old who pleaded guilty to heroin possession, asked Judge Robert Dow for a sentence of no more than four years in prison, saying he played a small role in a drug ring busted by the feds.

But on Thursday, Dow sent Fort to prison for 14 years. Fort, a former trainer at Lakeshore Athletic Club in Lincoln Park, was secretly recorded in the locker room agreeing to buy 100 grams of heroin, prosecutors said.

Fort, a relative of El Rukn founder Jeff Fort, was one of 55 people charged in September 2010 in a drug conspiracy. A book released Thursday by the Chicago Crime Commission listed Jeff Fort and three other Forts as leaders of the Black P Stone Nation.

Jeff Fort, 64, is now serving a virtual life sentence at the federal supermax prison in Colorado for attempted domestic terrorism.

In a letter to Dow, Johnny Fort’s wife, Katie Fort, said, “Much of this case against my husband is a personal vendetta carried out by the Chicago FBI against the Fort family.”

She added that she and her husband, who traveled overseas to play basketball, “never should have stayed in Chicago and tried to build a life here.” Johnny Fort played basketball for Iowa and Virginia Tech. His bio says he played professionally in Spain.