Former patronage chief sentenced to 46 months
With more than 150 supporters packing thecourtroom, Mayor Daley’s former patronage chief was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for his role in a corrupt City Hall hiring scheme.
Although the sentence was lighter than it could have been, U.S. District Judge David Coar was sharply critical of Robert Sorich, saying Sorich sat at the top of a corrupt operation.
Although the sentence was lighter than it could have been, U.S. District Judge David Coar was sharply critical of Robert Sorich, saying Sorich sat at the top of a corrupt operation.
“It’s corruption with a capital C,” Coar told Sorich. “There’s nothing good about what you did. I don’t give a hoot if this is going on for 200 years. It stinks. It stinks.”
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
“It’s corruption with a capital C,” Coar told Sorich. “There’s nothing good about what you did. I don’t give a hoot if this is going on for 200 years. It stinks. It stinks.”
Sorich’s eyes welled up as Coar announced his prison sentence. Sorich’s wife put her hands to her face and cried.
Moments before, Sorich — who was once a top Daley aide, in the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs — gave a brief statement but didn’t apologize.
“I am not a broken man here today,” the soft-spoken Sorich told the packed courtroom. “I am a lucky man because of this support.”
Codefendant Timothy McCarthy, who also worked at the intergovernmental affairs office, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He got a break after meeting with the government eight times — five times before his trial and three times after his conviction. McCarthy’s lawyer, Patrick Deady, said that if McCarthy pleaded guilty he would lose a pension he built up after 20 years.
“Judge, I will regret this for the rest of my life,” McCarthy told Coar.
Sorich lawyer Tom Durkin argued for no prison time, saying his client didn’t take bribes or otherwise gain anything personally. Durkin criticized a legal system in which another corrupt former city official, former water czar Donald Tomczak, got a prison sentence just one month longer than what Sorich got, though Tomczak admitted taking $400,000 in bribes. Durkin criticized the U.S. Attorney’s Office for its role in a system he said punishes those who fight charges and take their case to trial and rewards those who cooperate, even if they’re more corrupt.
“This is ‘play ball by our terms, or else you go to jail,’ end of story,” Durkin said.
But prosecutors said they wouldn’t apologize for a system that allows wrongdoers to make amends and help fix a criminal system.
Coar gave Sorich a prison sentence in the low end of the range possible under federal sentencing guidelines. Sorich had faced up to 57 months in prison. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to 71 months. Coar also gave McCarthy a significant break, citing his cooperation with the government and his show of remorse.
Hundreds of friends and family showed up at this morning’s sentencing, causing Coar to move the hearing from his own courtroom to the federal courthouse’s largest.
A jury convicted Sorich, McCarthy and two others — who are still to be sentenced later this afternoon — in a scheme to award jobs and promotions to city applicants who were politically connected.
Witnesses testified they were given “blessed lists” from Sorich and others at IGA, with names of people who were to get jobs. Managers then rigged interviews and changed test scores so that the connected candidates won advancement no matter their qualifications, testimony showed. Prosecutors maintained that those who won jobs had done free political campaign work and received city jobs and promotions as their payback.