Ex-prison watchdog official acquitted of payoffs
The former executive director of a prison watchdog organization who doubled as a lobbyist was acquitted Wednesday of paying $20,000 in kickbacks to the former head of the state corrections system.
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel acquitted Michael Mahoney, former head of the John Howard Association, following a seven-day bench trial that stretched across three weeks.
Speaking of Mahoney, Zagel said it was ''difficult to defend, at least on moral grounds, what he did and his use of influence in lobbying'' while at the same time leading a prominent prison reform organization.
''His counsel made no effort to whitewash that part of his conduct,'' Zagel said. He said the fact that the ''defense of this charge is inherently unattractive'' was the reason Mahoney's lawyers wanted a bench trial rather than a trial before a potentially emotional jury.
Zagel said he discounted the testimony of one key witness against Mahoney, former Illinois Corrections Director Donald Snyder, and had doubts about another, former Cook County Undersheriff John Robinson.
Mahoney had been charged with scheming with Robinson to pay $20,000 to Snyder on behalf of lobbying clients.
But Zagel said Snyder's repeated memory failures on the witness stand rendered his testimony unreliable and Robinson's demeanor on the stand suggested he might be ''inflating Mahoney's role.''
Snyder and Robinson have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
Mahoney and his relatives hugged his chief defense counsel, Thomas Anthony Durkin, after the judge handed down his verdict.
Durkin had maintained there was no evidence that Mahoney knew anything about the payoffs to Snyder.
Durkin told reporters he didn't feel ''that the case should have been brought to begin with, and Mike is extremely grateful that the judge was able to see the evidence the same way.''
''It's an incredible belief that this ordeal is over,'' Mahoney told reporters. He described the charges and the trial ''a character-building experience.''
