Troutman charges detailed
$15,000 payoff allegedly went to group run by mom, siblings
When Ald. Arenda Troutman took bribes, she didn't just pocket them, the FBI says.
She allegedly directed $15,000 in illegal payoffs to the 20th Ward Women's Auxiliary.
State records show the group was run by her mother and siblings.
The auxiliary was created in 1993 and dissolved in the spring of 2003. The group lent Troutman's campaign fund $7,000, which has not been repaid, according to her campaign records. Troutman and her family members could not be reached for comment.
Troutman, who has represented the 20th Ward since 1990, was arrested Monday on charges of pocketing thousands of dollars in bribes to grease the way for a real-estate development. "Well the thing is, most aldermen, most politicians are ho's," the FBI allegedly recorded her saying.
Last year, she arranged to have an investor buy $15,000 of campaign tickets in exchange for a letter from Troutman supporting a development in the 5700 block of South Halsted, according to the government.
She told an FBI informant to have the developer write a check for the cost of campaign tickets to the women's auxiliary, according to the criminal complaint against her.
It turns out that the site wasn't even in Troutman's ward. The criminal complaint indicates the informant took Troutman there and "directed Troutman's attention to buildings and vacant land" at 5730 S. Halsted, which is in the ward of Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th).
Did the feds err when their informant directed Troutman to a site not in her ward?
"It just doesn't sound right: [the informant] bribed Arenda Troutman to develop Shirley Coleman's ward with money she didn't ever get?" said Troutman's lawyer, Sam Adam Jr. "They can't even get the area where they're trying to set her up right?"
FBI spokesman Ross Rice said the location doesn't affect the charges.
"From a legal standpoint, it doesn't matter. It's not an element of the crime," Rice said. "Bottom line is, under the letter of the law, it doesn't matter."
Troutman, 49, sent a letter of support to the Chicago Department of Transportation for alley access to the property, the FBI says.
"These types of letters are very common and routine. They do not require action on the part of our department. They are more of an FYI than anything. They are courtesy letters. We get scores, if not hundreds, of these letters each year," Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said.
Department officials were unaware the property was in the 16th Ward. "The letter came on stationery from the 20th Ward. The assumption was that this was related to the 20th Ward," said Steele, who reviewed a copy of the letter filed in the criminal case.
In a separate allegation, Troutman is accused of shaking down another developer for $20,000 in 2003. But when the developer was arrested on gun and money-laundering charges, he approached the FBI to cooperate against the alderman.
Records indicate the man was building a beauty shop a few doors away from Troutman's ward office in the 5800 block of South State. The city issued a stop-work order for the two-story property in April 2002 because the man did not have a building permit.
The man allegedly paid a worker in Troutman's office $8,000 to keep working without a permit, according to the FBI. He paid an additional $12,000 for the alderman's support in rezoning the building for a beauty shop, authorities said. Troutman provided a letter saying she approved the zoning change, which was granted by the City Council, the FBI alleges.
Contributing: Fran Spielman, Annie Sweeney