Crowd gasped when panel OKd hospital, witness says
REZKO TRIAL | Prosecution says vote rigged, linked to defendant
A state board's vote to approve an $81 million hospital was so obviously orchestrated, a prosecution witness at Tony Rezko's corruption trial testified Tuesday, that those who were there let out a "collective, shared gasp" when it happened.
"I was very concerned" about the 2004 vote to approve Mercy Health System's new Crystal Lake hospital, said Anne Murphy, former general counsel to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times file)
Prosecutors maintain that the vote was rigged so Stuart Levine -- then an influential board member, now the chief witness against Rezko -- could pocket a $1.5 million bribe. And they say Levine couldn't have done it without Rezko, who's accused of using his influence in Gov. Blagojevich's administration to appoint members to state boards and rig key votes.
The Crystal Lake vote came after board member Dr. Imad Almanaseer initially voted "present," which would have blocked the project. Board chairman Thomas Beck spoke to Levine, who whispered something to Almanaseer, according to testimony Tuesday from Donald Jones, a state health official who said he had never seen anything like what happened next: "Dr. Almanaseer changed his vote to yes."
Murphy told jurors the vote to approve the hospital prompted "a collective, shared gasp."
Murphy said she asked Levine about what happened and he shrugged and told her: "Sometimes, you have to be a good soldier."
Also Tuesday, Rezko's lawyers presented documents to show the Mercy hospital was needed. Those records showed state Rep. Jack Franks did legal work for Mercy's proposal and worked to win support for it.
In an interview later, Franks downplayed the work he did and noted that four months had passed between the time he quit representing the hospital and the state board approved the project.
Contributing: Dave McKinney, Chris Fusco