Blagojevich clears 2 of crimes in final official acts

LAST-MINUTE CLEMENCY | Janitor, developer cleared

Rod Blagojevich was visiting a West Side homeless shelter over Thanksgiving when a janitor approached him.

Jimmie L. Beck said he was hoping to have his criminal convictions expunged.

The governor asked Beck to give his personal information to Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, who was working as a fund-raiser for the shelter run by the Chicago Christian Industrial League.

On Thursday — hours before Blagojevich was ousted as governor — Beck got his wish.

In one of his last official acts, Blagojevich wiped away the convictions of Beck and prominent Chicago real-estate developer Fred S. Latsko.

Beck was “very happy,” said Mary Shaver, acting executive director of the Chicago Christian Industrial League. “He was surprised.”

Also surprised was Jorge Montes, chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

There were about 3,000 requests for pardons awaiting Blagojevich’s decision — all of which had been forwarded to him from the prisoner review board.

But neither of the actions he took Thursday went through that process, Montes said.

“It would appear the governor opted to circumvent the board entirely,” Montes said. “Frankly it is a little surprising. Nothing strikes me as interesting or unusual about [the two cases].”

Blagojevich issued a pardon and an expungement for the 40-year-old Beck, who was sentenced to a year of probation in 1986 on a battery conviction and was sentenced to a year in prison in 2000 for a drug conviction, court records show.

Blagojevich also expunged the 1985 deception and forgery conviction of Latsko, who had received a pardon for the conviction in 1989 from then-Gov. Jim Thompson.

Latsko, 43, is a Chicago socialite who reportedly was one of Oprah Winfrey’s guests at her fund-raiser for Barack Obama at her California mansion in 2007. He bought her sprawling estate in Rolling Prairie, Ind., in 2005.

Latsko and his wife reportedly needed two private jets to whisk their pals, including former Gov. Jim Edgar, to the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

State records show Latsko made about $76,000 in campaign contributions to numerous politicians ranging from Mayor Daley to Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White over the years — but none to Blagojevich.

Neither man could immediately be reached for comment.

Lucio Guerrero, a spokesman for Blagojevich, would not comment on the actions.

Patti Blagojevich, who started Sept. 1 as development director of the 100-year-old Chicago Christian Industrial League, was quietly dismissed from her $100,000-a-year job about a week ago.