Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Jon Seidel

Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asks judge for freedom while he appeals his conviction

2025-07-14T17:59:14.885-05:00

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan asked a judge Monday to let him stay out of prison while he appeals the conviction that led to a 7 ½-year prison sentence he’s due to begin serving in three months.

“Few areas of criminal law are more complex, and more rapidly evolving, than federal bribery law,” his lawyers wrote in a 21-page court filing.

They argued that “this complex and vigorously litigated case easily clears the substantial question hurdle” they face to keep Madigan out of prison. Specifically, they pointed to “complex issues” in the jury instructions and said the case could require a new trial.

Michael Madigan sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for corruption convictions

The motion filed Monday by Madigan’s lawyers is no surprise — they warned U.S. District Judge John Blakey it’d be coming after Blakey handed down the harsh sentence June 13.

But it formally kicks off Madigan’s bid to remain a free man as the clock ticks down toward his surrender date. Blakey ordered Madigan to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Oct. 13.

Madigan is 83. If he reports in October as ordered, he could be nearing his 90th birthday by the time he’s released. But if his latest request is granted, he could remain free while his appeal takes months — or even years — to play out.

To be successful, Madigan will likely need to convince a judge that his appeal raises a substantial question of law or fact that could result in reversal or a new trial, or sentences of no prison time or prison time that’d be less than needed to deal with his appeal.

Trump’s on a pardon spree, prison looms for Madigan, and Blago wouldn’t wish sentencing on his ‘worst enemy’

The Southwest Side Democrat’s trial was delayed by six months last year after the U.S. Supreme Court took up a separate corruption case involving a bribery law at issue in Madigan’s.

Though members of the high court wound up debating what it means to act “corruptly” as described in the statute, the justices did not ultimately define the term. It then became a matter of debate while lawyers sorted out jury instructions during Madigan’s trial.

Blakey had harsh words for Madigan during the former speaker’s sentencing last month. The judge accused Madigan of lying on the witness stand at trial and called it a “nauseating display.”

But even if Blakey denies Madigan’s request, lawyers for the former politician could then make the same request to judges in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Once a political giant, Madigan now a convicted felon and likely prison inmate — but not a racketeer

It’s been five months since a jury convicted Madigan, the country’s longest-serving state House leader, of a bribery conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes.

The jury found Madigan guilty of a nearly decadelong plot in which ComEd paid $1.3 million to Madigan’s allies so Madigan would look favorably at the utility’s legislation.

Jurors also convicted him of a scheme to install former Ald. Danny Solis on a state board in exchange for his help securing private business. Solis was wearing a wire for the FBI at the time, in a bid to avoid prosecution for his own alleged crimes.

Madigan’s bid to remain free will likely be closely watched by four others convicted for their role in the ComEd conspiracy. They are longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-Comed lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty. Hooker was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday. The other three are still awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors have sought sentences of nearly six years behind bars for McClain and Pramaggiore but have yet to make public their recommendation for Doherty.

Hijo del Chapo se declara culpable y acepta ayudar a la fiscalía para evitar cadena perpetua

2025-07-14T14:03:38.776-05:00

Un hijo del notorio rey de la droga de Sinaloa, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, aceptó el viernes en una corte federal de Chicago cooperar con las autoridades estadounidenses en todo el país, mientras enfrenta una condena de cadena perpetua. Ovidio Guzmán López, de 35 años de edad, apareció vestido con un overol naranja y lentes en medio de una alta seguridad en la sala del juzgado de la Jueza de Distrito de Estados Unidos, Sharon Johnson Coleman en la Corte Federal Dirksen, en el centro de la ciudad.

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Cuatro agentes de los Alguaciles de los Estados Unidos estaban cerca mientras Guzmán López admitía que él y sus hermanos, conocidos como los Chapitos, heredaron el control del cártel internacional de drogas de su padre, quien ahora cumple una condena de cadena perpetua en la prisión llamada Florence Supermax en Colorado.

Guzmán López se declaró culpable de dos cargos de conspiración de tráfico de drogas, así como de dos cargos de participar en una empresa criminal continua. Lo hizo en un intento por resolver los cargos federales que se habían presentado en su contra en Chicago y Manhattan, de acuerdo con un acuerdo de culpabilidad de 36 páginas.

Durante el proceso, Guzmán López admitió que usó una violencia brutal para ayudar a controlar el cártel que una vez lideró su padre. Admitió su papel en tres asesinatos que ocurrieron en 2018 y 2021.

El fiscal asistente de Estados Unidos, Andrew Erskine, explicó en la corte que dos de los cargos conllevan una sentencia de cadena perpetua obligatoria. Sin embargo, también señaló que el acuerdo de culpabilidad puede permitir que Guzmán López sea sentenciado a un período de prisión menor que la cadena perpetua si cumple con su parte del trato.

Dependerá de los fiscales decidir si Guzmán López debe tener esa oportunidad. Por ahora, su sentencia está en espera.

Después de la audiencia del viernes, el abogado defensor Jeffrey Lichtman dijo a los reporteros que confía en los fiscales que actualmente están manejando el caso.

“Estos fiscales de Chicago, y los de [Washington] D.C., San Diego, han sido completamente francos y justos”, comentó.

El acuerdo de culpabilidad exige que Ovidio Guzmán coopere con los fiscales federales en Chicago, el Distrito Sur de California y el Distrito Sur de Nueva York. También le requiere colaborar con la Oficina de Narcóticos y Drogas Peligrosas (BNDD).

Coleman utilizó la audiencia del viernes para guiar a Guzmán López a través de los muchos detalles de su acuerdo, incluyendo la cláusula de cooperación.

Pero cuando llegó por primera vez a su sala, la jueza simplemente le preguntó a Guzmán López cómo se sentía.

“Bien”, respondió.

Guzmán López respondió el resto de las preguntas de la jueza en español también, con la ayuda de un traductor que estaba interpretando en la corte. Luciendo barba, Guzmán López también usaba audífonos para ayudar con la traducción.

En su acuerdo de culpabilidad, Guzmán López admitió muchas de las acusaciones en una acusación de 2023 contra él y sus hermanos: Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar y Joaquín Guzmán López.

Joaquín Guzmán López está bajo custodia y su próxima comparecencia en corte está programada para el 15 de septiembre.

Lichtman también representa a los hermanos de Ovidio Guzmán López, un conflicto que fue renunciado por Ovidio Guzmán López en el acuerdo de culpabilidad.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera en una foto de su arresto en México en 1993.

Cuando se acusó a los Chapitos en 2023, el entonces Fiscal General Merrick Garland denunció “la operación de tráfico de fentanilo más grande, violenta y prolífica del mundo —dirigida por el Cártel de Sinaloa y alimentada por empresas químicas y farmacéuticas chinas”.

Los hermanos fueron acusados de torturar a sus enemigos electrocutándolos, sometiéndolos a ahogamiento simulado y alimentándolos vivos a tigres que, según las autoridades, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar y Jesús Guzmán Salazar mantenían como mascotas en sus ranchos.

Ovidio Guzmán López admitió el viernes su participación en la Batalla de Culiacán en el bastión del Cártel de Sinaloa en México donde, el 17 de octubre de 2019, aproximadamente 700 miembros armados del cártel atacaron objetivos gubernamentales y militares.

También reconoció que él y sus hermanos coordinaron el envío de drogas —incluyendo cocaína, heroína, metanfetamina y marihuana— desde países de Centro y Sudamérica hacia México y luego a Estados Unidos y Chicago.

El cártel movió cargamentos de droga utilizando aviones, submarinos, barcos, vagones de tren y túneles, de acuerdo con el acuerdo de culpabilidad.

Ovidio Guzmán López admitió haber jugado un papel en los asesinatos de Jesús Antonio Muñoz Parra en diciembre de 2018 en México; de Mario Nungaray Bobadilla en mayo de 2021 en Phoenix, y de Geovanni Hurtado Vicente en octubre de 2021 en México.

El cártel de los Chapitos también se considera el principal proveedor de fentanilo a Estados Unidos. La droga —un azote mortal en las calles de Chicago desde 2005— se mezcla en píldoras falsificadas que pretenden ser OxyContin u otras drogas recetadas y también se combina con heroína y otras drogas para ser aspiradas o inyectadas.

Este año, los agentes de la Administración de Control de Drogas (DEA) en la oficina de Chicago han incautado más de 1.6 millones de píldoras que contienen fentanilo, en comparación con aproximadamente 600,000 píldoras en todo 2024, 405,000 en 2023 y cerca de 65,000 en 2022.

Contribuyó: Frank Main

Traducido con una herramienta de inteligencia artificial (AI) y editado por La Voz Chicago

Former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker gets 18-month prison sentence for Madigan conspiracy

2025-07-14T12:08:50.985-05:00

ComEd’s former top lobbyist spent weeks in 2023 listening to the sound of his own voice, learning through secret FBI recordings how he sounded when he thought no one was listening.

The feds caught John Hooker boasting about a corrupt plan to sway then-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, calling it “clean for all of us.” He predicted that Madigan, if rebuffed, might conclude, “you’re not going to do something for me? I don’t have to do anything for you.”

Still, it wasn’t until Monday that Hooker finally faced a federal judge and the possibility of prison time for the conduct caught by the FBI. Hooker told U.S. District Judge Manish Shah, “I do not like the way I sound on those recordings.” They were “very humbling” to hear, he said.

Jury convicts all four defendants in ComEd bribery trial — and fires a warning shot at Michael Madigan

But Shah concluded that Hooker participated in “secretive, sophisticated, criminal corruption.” And he said it was “imperative to disabuse anyone” of the notion that “this was just lobbying.”

Then he sentenced Hooker to 18 months in prison. It’s the first sentence to be handed down in a case that went to trial in 2023, ending with the convictions of four former top ComEd officials and lobbyists who plotted to illegally influence Madigan to benefit the utility.

“Lobbyists, corporate executives, public officials — whether in Springfield, Chicago or Washington, D.C. — should be reminded that there are still crimes on the books,” Shah said.

Hooker, 76, showed little reaction to the prison sentence. He left the Dirksen Federal Courthouse beside Jacqueline Jacobson, one of his defense attorneys. They both declined to speak to reporters on their way out the door.

Former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker chats with his attorney Jacqueline Jacobson as he walks out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Monday after being sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times

Convicted along with Hooker in May 2023 was longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty. All three face sentencing in the coming weeks.

Madigan was convicted in part for his role in the conspiracy earlier this year and was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison. The former speaker is due to surrender Oct. 13.

Hooker is now due in prison one day after that.

Because Hooker is the first of the four ComEd defendants to be sentenced, Monday’s hearing offered a preview of things to come for Hooker’s co-defendants. Lawyers representing McClain and Pramaggiore were spotted in the courtroom Monday.

The sentencings were long delayed because of machinations at the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court’s ruling in a separate corruption case led to the dismissal of a series of bribery counts in the ComEd case earlier this year.

That left the four defendants each convicted of conspiracy and four counts of falsifying books and records.

Madigan, ComEd bribery cases could be upended by U.S. Supreme Court ruling, defense attorneys say

Still, Shah told the courtroom that a reasonable jury could have found the four guilty of bribery beyond a reasonable doubt. And, he added, “I reached that conclusion based on my own review of the trial evidence.”

Shah did not preside over the trial but inherited the case after the 2024 death of U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber.

Hooker and the others arranged for $1.3 million to be paid by ComEd to five Madigan allies over eight years so that Madigan would look more favorably at ComEd’s legislative agenda. The money was paid through intermediaries, including Doherty’s consulting firm, and the allies did little or no work for ComEd.

“Burying bribes through hidden subcontracts was a creative solution that necessarily involved falsifying books, as Mr. Hooker well knew,” Shah said.

The judge also said Hooker gave “intentionally and materially false” testimony at trial. For example, Hooker claimed that he was “just joshing around” in a call with McClain — though the men actually seemed to brag about hatching the plan to secretly pay Madigan’s allies.

Shah called it a “clumsy lie, but a lie nonetheless.”

Michael McClain, a longtime confidant to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, walks into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Tuesday morning, March 14, 2023. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Hooker’s sentencing took place in a crowded courtroom. Jacobson told the judge many people in the gallery were members of Hooker’s immediate family and his “church family.”

They included people who had written to him about Hooker’s “transformational role in their lives,” she said.

The defense attorney reminded the judge that Hooker not only pulled himself out of poverty before rising from ComEd’s mailroom to the utility’s top ranks, but “his goal in taking himself out of the violence and poverty was to take others with him.”

She said Hooker is “still kind, he’s still generous, he’s still helpful, and he’s still there.”

Feds want more than 4.5 years for ex-ComEd lobbyist convicted in Madigan conspiracy

Shah seemed to agree. Even as he sent Hooker to prison Monday, the judge told him, “you are so much more than the crimes that you’ve committed.”

However, Shah explained that, “people are cynical about government, especially government that treats governance like a business transaction.”

“Those without corrupt access are left voiceless, yet still under the thumb of a corrupt system," he said.

“Those of you inside of it have the power to stop it.”

'El Chapo' son pleads guilty, agrees to help feds to avoid life sentence

2025-07-11T12:48:10.184-05:00

A son of the notorious Sinaloa drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera agreed in a Chicago federal courtroom Friday to cooperate with U.S. authorities across the nation — and to do so with a life prison sentence hanging over his head.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 35, wore an orange jumpsuit and glasses when he appeared amid high security in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman at the downtown Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

Four U.S. Marshals stood nearby as Guzman Lopez admitted that he and his brothers — known as the Chapitos — inherited control of the international drug cartel from their father, who is now serving a life prison sentence in the so-called supermax prison in Colorado.

‘El Chapo’ son extradited to Chicago to face drug conspiracy charges

Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to two drug trafficking conspiracy counts, as well as two counts of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. He did so in a bid to resolve federal charges that had been leveled against him in Chicago and Manhattan, pursuant to a 36-page plea deal.

Along the way, Guzman Lopez admitted that he used brutal violence to help control the cartel once led by his father. He admitted to his role in three murders that took place in 2018 and 2021.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine explained in court that two counts carry a mandatory life sentence. However, he also said the plea deal would allow for Guzman Lopez to possibly be sentenced to a prison term of less than life if he holds up his end of the bargain.

It’ll be up to prosecutors to decide whether Guzman Lopez should have that opportunity. For now, his sentencing is on hold.

4 ‘El Chapo’ sons indicted in Chicago, accused of ruthless takeover of Sinaloa Cartel

After Friday’s hearing, defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told reporters he trusts the prosecutors who are currently handling the case.

“These Chicago prosecutors, and the ones from [Washington] D.C., San Diego, have been completely straight and fair,” he said.

The plea agreement calls for Ovidio Guzman to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Chicago, the Southern District of California and the Southern District of New York. He is also required to cooperate with the Justice Department’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section.

Coleman used Friday’s hearing to walk Guzman Lopez through the many fine points of his deal, including the cooperation provision.

But when he first arrived in her courtroom, the judge simply asked Guzman Lopez how he was feeling.

“Bien,” he replied — meaning “good.”

Guzman Lopez answered the rest of the judge’s questions in Spanish as well, with help from a translator interpreting in the courtroom. Sporting a beard, Guzman Lopez also wore headphones to help with the translation.

In his plea agreement, Guzman Lopez admitted to many of the allegations in a 2023 indictment of him and his brothers: Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez is in custody and next due in court Sept. 15.

Lichtman also represents Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s brothers, a conflict waived by Ovidio Guzman Lopez in the plea agreement.

When the Chapitos were charged in 2023, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland decried “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl-trafficking operation in the world — run by the Sinaloa cartel and fueled by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies.”

The brothers were accused of torturing their enemies by electrocuting them, waterboarding them and feeding them alive to tigers that authorities said Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Guzman Salazar kept on ranches as pets.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez admitted Friday his involvement in the Battle of Culiacan in the Sinaloa cartel’s stronghold in Mexico where, on Oct. 17, 2019, about 700 armed cartel members attacked government and military targets.

He also acknowledged that he and his brothers coordinated the shipment of drugs — including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana — from countries in Central America and South America to Mexico and then into the United States and Chicago.

The cartel moved drugs using aircraft, submarines, boats, railcars and tunnels, according to the plea deal.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez admitted playing a role in the murders of Jesus Antonio Munoz Parra in December 2018 in Mexico; of Mario Nungaray Bobadilla in May 2021 in Phoenix; and Geovanni Hurtado Vicente in October 2021 in Mexico.

The Chapitos’ cartel is also considered the major supplier of fentanyl to the United States. The drug — a deadly scourge on Chicago's streets since 2005 — is mixed into counterfeit pills purporting to be OxyContin or other prescription drugs and also is blended with heroin and other drugs to be snorted or injected.

This year, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in the Chicago office have seized more than 1.6 million pills containing fentanyl — compared with about 600,000 pills in all of 2024, 405,000 in 2023 and about 65,000 in 2022.

Contributing: Frank Main

Federal prosecutors seek nearly 6 years in prison for Madigan confidant Michael McClain

2025-07-10T16:12:18.984-05:00

The feds say a man who once had an “unbreakable” bond with former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan should be sentenced to nearly six years in prison, partly for serving as Madigan’s “agent, messenger” and “henchman” in a lengthy conspiracy involving ComEd.

Prosecutors said Thursday that Michael McClain’s “tight connection” with the former speaker led to McClain “making demand after demand of ComEd to fulfill Madigan’s directives,” as a jury concluded in May 2023.

“McClain’s plan was illegal to its core,” they wrote.

Jury convicts all four defendants in ComEd bribery trial — and fires a warning shot at Michael Madigan

But McClain’s attorneys say he should get probation when he’s sentenced July 24. They said the 77-year-old former lobbyist once operated in an Illinois Capitol where favors were “not perceived by the vast majority of legislators and lobbyists … as being in any sense illegal.”

They also said the “most important consideration” for U.S. District Judge Manish Shah could be the adequacy of medical treatment McClain might receive behind bars. They cited the possibility that he could “die alone in prison, separated from his family and loved ones.”

“Mr. McClain has not held political office in over 30 years,” his lawyers told the judge. “He is neither responsible for, nor is it just to punish him to any degree for generations of the way politics has been conducted by other people in this state.”

Michael McClain, co-defendant of ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse following a day of jury selection in their trial.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Six years ago, McClain bragged about how “you’ve never seen my name in a newspaper article.” But in the years since, he’s become a central character in multiple trials at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

He faced two of his own. One ended with McClain’s conviction for the ComEd conspiracy, for which he now faces sentencing. Jurors in that case found McClain guilty for his role in a scheme to pay $1.3 million to five Madigan allies to curry favor with Madigan.

Convicted along with McClain in that case were former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty. All four face sentencing before Shah in the coming weeks.

McClain then went to trial a second time, alongside Madigan. But jurors in that case returned no verdict when it came to McClain.

Once a political giant, Madigan now a convicted felon and likely prison inmate — but not a racketeer

Still, panels in two other trials heard plenty about him. The jury that convicted former Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice in 2023 listened to McClain’s voice repeatedly as prosecutors used his wiretapped calls to prosecute Mapes.

Then, the jury that failed in 2024 to reach a verdict regarding former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza heard that McClain was seen as Madigan’s emissary amid an alleged bribery scheme for which no one has been convicted, so far.

La Schiazza faces trial again in January.

Much has been made of the friendship between Madigan and McClain, which seems to have been key to the case prosecutors built against the once-powerful former speaker. Former Ald. Danny Solis asked McClain about it in a secretly recorded conversation in 2017.

Solis wore a wire for the FBI to avoid a conviction for his own alleged wrongdoing. McClain once served in the Legislature with Madigan, taking office around 1972.

“The speaker was No. 1,” McClain told Solis. “I was No. 2. And, um, we became real good friends. And then after I left office, then I went back to lobbying, and we continued that friendship.”

McClain also told Solis about a lesser-known side of Madigan, warning him about watching Notre Dame games with the famously reserved politician.

“He’s yelling and screaming all the time,” McClain said. “You don’t want to sit in the living room with him and watch a Notre Dame game. He gets pretty passionate about it.”

Michael Madigan’s friendship with alleged fixer could be tested during their corruption trial

Madigan testified at trial that his relationship with McClain had survived, “until recently.” And during closing arguments in their trial earlier this year, McClain attorney Patrick Cotter said McClain was once Madigan’s “good friend.”

“We know, now, he’s not,” Cotter told the jury. “And that’s — I guess that’s a casualty of this case. But it was real.”

However, U.S. District Judge John Blakey took Madigan to task last month while sentencing him to 7 ½ years in prison. The judge accused Madigan of lying on the witness stand, including about his relationship with McClain.

“McClain was one of Madigan’s most trusted operatives,” Blakey said, “not just one lobbyist of many as Madigan falsely portrayed in his testimony on the witness stand.”

Exconcejal Ed Burke sale de prisión después de 9 meses para cumplir confinamiento en casa

2025-07-09T15:45:59.128-05:00

El exconcejal de Chicago Edward M. Burke ha salido de la prisión del noroeste de Illinois donde había estado recluido desde septiembre por su histórica condena por extorsión, soborno y conspiración, confirmaron las autoridades.

Burke fue trasladado el martes de una prisión de baja seguridad en Thomson a confinamiento comunitario, según un portavoz de la Oficina Federal de Prisiones (FBOP). Esto significa que Burke continuará cumpliendo su condena en casa o en una casa de transición. Su fecha oficial de liberación de la FBOP sigue siendo el 20 de febrero, indicó el portavoz.

La sentencia de dos años de prisión de Burke sorprendió cuando fue dictada en junio de 2024 por la Jueza del Distrito de Estados Unidos, Virginia Kendall, quien ahora es la jueza federal principal de la Municipalidad. Y al final, parece que el castigo por el abuso de la oficina de Burke es un total de nueve meses tras las rejas.

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El martes, un abogado del ex político se negó a hacer comentarios. Hace unas semanas, cuando surgió la noticia de que Burke podría dejar pronto la cárcel, el Sun-Times también contactó a su hermano, el exdiputado estatal Dan Burke.

Dan Burke dijo que su hermano había perdido mucho peso y estaba muy encorvado, tanto que los habitantes de Chicago que lo conocieron durante su apogeo como una figura política poderosa “apenas lo reconocerían”.

También mencionó que la esposa de Ed Burke, la exjueza principal de la Corte Suprema de Illinois, Anne Burke, había hecho el esfuerzo de conducir horas para ver a su esposo cada fin de semana, tomando una habitación de hotel cerca de la instalación en Thomson.

Ahora, otro ex poderoso político enfrenta un tiempo serio en prisión. El ex presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois, Michael J. Madigan, fue sentenciado en junio por el Juez de la Corte de Distrito de Estados Unidos, John Blakey, a 7 años y medio de prisión.

Eso es más del triple del tiempo que Kendall le dio a Ed Burke. Sin embargo, los abogados de Madigan han dejado claro que esperan mantenerlo fuera de prisión mientras apela su condena.

Una vez que Ed Burke, de 81 años de edad, llegue a su fecha de liberación de la FBOP, se espera que comience a cumplir un año de libertad supervisada. Durante ese tiempo, el ex poderoso político deberá cumplir con varias condiciones impuestas por la corte.

Por ejemplo, los registros muestran que Ed Burke necesitará permiso para salir del distrito judicial norte de Illinois y deberá presentarse en la oficina de libertad condicional dentro de las 72 horas. También se le prohibirá poseer “un arma de fuego, un dispositivo destructivo u otra arma peligrosa”.

Cuando Ed Burke fue acusado por primera vez en 2019, las autoridades revelaron que se encontraron 23 armas en sus oficinas.

Ed Burke también tendrá prohibido comunicarse con Charles Cui, el constructor que fue condenado junto a él en diciembre de 2023, durante su libertad supervisada. No sólo eso, sino que los registros indican que Ed Burke tiene prohibido buscar empleo como funcionario público electo.

Eso parece poco probable, incluso para el miembro del Concejo Municipal que ha servido por más tiempo en la historia de Chicago.

De cualquier forma, Ed Burke parece estar cerca del final de una saga que comenzó con la incautación del Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) de sus oficinas en noviembre de 2018 y los cargos criminales originales en su contra en enero de 2019. Ambos eventos, y la noticia de que el entonces concejal de Chicago, Danny Solís, lo grabó en secreto para el FBI, transformaron la carrera por la alcaldía de 2019, que terminó con la elección de Lori Lightfoot.

En mayo de 2019, un gran jurado presentó una acusación más amplia contra Ed Burke. Pero gracias a la pandemia de COVID-19 y una montaña de mociones previas al juicio, no fue hasta finales de 2023 que el poderoso político finalmente enfrentó juicio y fue declarado culpable por un jurado.

El caso contra Ed Burke involucró esquemas relacionados con el Field Museum, la antigua Oficina de Correos que se encuentra a ambos lados de la Autopista Eisenhower, un Burger King en el distrito 14 de Ed Burke y una licorería Binny’s Beverage Depot en el lado noroeste.

El juicio presentó varias grabaciones secretas del FBI, incluyendo una en la que Ed Burke fue célebremente descubierto preguntándole a Solís, “¿Obtuvimos… el atún?”, una referencia a un negocio que Ed Burke estaba tratando de conseguir para su firma de abogados.

Ed Burke fue atrapado en la misma agresiva investigación de corrupción que llevó a la condena de Madigan a principios de este año. Ambos hombres fueron condenados, en parte, por esquemas en los que reclutaron a Solís mientras intentaban desviar negocios privados de los constructores de la antigua Oficina de Correos a sus firmas.

En ese momento, Solís era el poderoso presidente del comité de zonificación del Concejo Municipal. Solís aceptó usar un micrófono para el FBI después de que los agentes lo confrontaron con evidencia de su propia mala conducta. Solís salió de la investigación sin tiempo en prisión —ni siquiera una condena criminal— como resultado del acuerdo que hizo con las autoridades.

Traducido con una herramienta de inteligencia artificial (AI) y editado por La Voz Chicago

Indicted former Ald. Carrie Austin found medically unfit for trial

2025-07-09T11:44:58.077-05:00

Former longtime Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin may live her remaining days under the cloud of an unresolved federal indictment after a judge Wednesday found her medically unfit for trial.

The 76-year-old who spent 28 years representing the 34th Ward suffers from lung and heart ailments, as well as cancer. She collapsed during a City Council meeting in 2021. And now, U.S. District Judge John Kness has concluded that a trial would be an “unacceptable” risk to her well-being.

“Barring a material improvement in her health, she may indeed never face the prospect of a guilty verdict,” Kness wrote in his 19-page ruling. “But then again, she may also never enjoy the restorative benefit of a not guilty verdict.”

Kitchen cabinets, sump pumps were kickbacks, says indictment charging Ald. Carrie Austin with bribery

Kness handed down his ruling an hour or so ahead of a scheduled hearing in Austin’s case. When attorneys met with the judge later in the morning, a prosecutor acknowledged that the decision left the feds in an unusual position.

It’s not clear exactly what will happen next.

For the time being, Kness scheduled a status hearing for Jan. 7 and canceled Austin's November trial. Along the way, he mentioned the possibility that prosecutors might try to appeal his ruling — as well as the “very remote” chance that Austin’s health will improve enough for her to face trial one day.

Barring such developments, Austin’s criminal case could effectively be at an end. It comes as a broader federal assault on corruption at City Hall and in Springfield appears to be wrapping up.

Austin’s indictment for bribery and lying to the FBI made her one of three sitting City Council members facing federal charges when it was handed up in July 2021. Then-Alds. Edward M. Burke (14th) and Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) were also facing charges at the time.

Convicted former Ald. Ed Burke leaves prison for community confinement after 9 months

Burke and Thompson have since been convicted by juries and served time in prison. Burke was just released to community confinement Tuesday.

All three prosecutions were part of that wider assault on corruption, culminating with this year’s conviction of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who was sentenced last month to 7 ½ years in prison.

In a statement Wednesday, Austin lawyer Thomas Anthony Durkin said he and co-counsel Joshua Herman were “gratified” by Kness’ “thoughtful and well considered opinion.” So was Austin, he said.

Austin’s former chief of staff, Chester Wilson Jr., still faces charges of bribery and theft of government funds.

Austin left the Council in 2023 but had become the second-most senior member of the body by the time of her indictment. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Austin in August 1994 to fill the vacancy created by the death of her husband, Lemuel, who’d served since 1987.

The death of 34th Ward Ald. Lemuel Austin Jr. (above) in 1994 created the vacancy that former Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Austin’s wife, Carrie Austin, to fill weeks later.

Rich Hein / Sun-Times

Prosecutors say Carrie Austin accepted home improvement materials such as sump pumps, a dehumidifier and kitchen cabinets as kickbacks from a developer overseeing a $50 million development in her ward. She allegedly then took action to benefit the developer and others.

Carrie Austin allegedly sent aldermanic acknowledgment letters by email in 2016 stating she had no objection to the city issuing building permits within the development. In 2017 and 2018, she allegedly helped seek the release of city payments to a bank that financed the project.

Then, when authorities raided Carrie Austin’s offices in 2019, she allegedly denied receiving “anything” from that developer — other than a cake.

Authorities remove bags, envelopes and at least 5 boxes — some marked “evidence” — from Ald. Carrie Austin’s ward office at 507 W. 111th St. on June 19, 2019.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Carrie Austin’s lawyers have argued since late 2022 that she is not fit for trial. They pointed to her collapse during a December 2021 City Council meeting and said doctors found she had a condition caused by a partial collapse of the lungs.

They said her breathing issues then worsened, as did pain in her legs and chest. They argued she had a condition that made her feel like she was drowning when she was lying down, so she could only sleep in a recliner. And they said she struggled to walk even with the help of portable oxygen.

Prosecutors countered that Carrie Austin had been surveilled by the FBI, and she was seen walking without assistance — and without the use of oxygen.

Indicted Ald. Carrie Austin walked ‘unassisted’ despite medical claims, feds say

Kness appointed pulmonologist Susan R. Russell of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute to prepare a report on Carrie Austin’s fitness. Russell found earlier this year that Carrie Austin’s “pulmonary dysfunction prevents her from participating in trial” as described by lawyers, records show.

Russell also found Carrie Austin’s “lung function has declined over time,” that she would likely require multiple oxygen tanks to get through each trial day and is not likely to “tolerate crossing town daily for both courtroom activities and daily review sessions with her lawyer[s].”

In his ruling, Kness noted that “the act of showering or walking from room to room in her house is strenuous for [Carrie Austin].

“So there is no doubt that traveling to and from the courthouse, sitting in trial all day, and traveling to meet with her attorneys at night, even with the aid of a scooter, will have an ‘adverse effect’ on her health.”

Contributing: Fran Spielman

Convicted former Ald. Ed Burke leaves prison for community confinement after 9 months

2025-07-08T13:14:16.315-05:00

Former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke has left the northwestern Illinois prison where he’s been held since September for his historic racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion conviction, officials have confirmed.

Burke transferred Tuesday from a low-security prison facility in Thomson to community confinement, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson. That means Burke will either continue to serve his sentence in home confinement or a halfway house. His official Bureau of Prisons release date remains Feb. 20, the spokesperson said.

Burke’s two-year prison sentence raised eyebrows when it was handed down in June 2024 by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, now the city’s chief federal judge. And in the end, it appears the punishment for Burke’s abuse of office is a total of nine months behind bars.

A smiling Ed Burke greets 2-year sentence on corruption charges as judge rejects prosecution request for much tougher term

A lawyer for the former politician declined to comment Tuesday. A few weeks ago, when word surfaced that Burke might soon be leaving prison, the Sun-Times also reached out to Burke's brother, former state Rep. Dan Burke.

Dan Burke said his brother had lost so much weight and was so hunched over, Chicagoans who knew him during his heyday as a political powerhouse would "barely recognize him."

He also said Ed Burke's wife, former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke, had dutifully made the hourslong drive to see her husband every weekend, taking a hotel room near the facility in Thomson.

Now another former political heavyweight is facing serious time in custody. Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Blakey in June to 7 ½ years in prison.

That’s more than triple the amount of time Kendall handed to Ed Burke. However, Madigan’s lawyers have made clear they hope to keep him out of prison while he appeals his conviction.

Once the 81-year-old Ed Burke reaches his Bureau of Prisons release date, he is expected to begin serving a year of supervised release. During that time, the once-powerful politician will have to abide by several court-ordered conditions.

For example, records show Ed Burke will need to get permission to leave the northern judicial district of Illinois and report to the probation office within 72 hours. He’ll also be prohibited from possessing “a firearm, destructive device, or other dangerous weapon.”

When Ed Burke was first charged in 2019, authorities disclosed that 23 guns had been found in his offices.

Ed Burke ‘had his hand out for money.’ Powerful politician convicted of extortion, bribery in historic verdict

Ed Burke will also be prohibited from communicating with Charles Cui, the developer convicted alongside him in December 2023, during his supervised release. Not only that, but records show Ed Burke will be prohibited from seeking employment as an elected public official.

That seems unlikely, even for the longest-serving City Council member in Chicago history.

Either way, Ed Burke seems to be near the end of a saga that began with the FBI’s raid of his offices in November 2018 and the original criminal charges against him in January 2019. The two events, and the news that then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis had secretly recorded him for the FBI, transformed the 2019 race for mayor, which ended with the election of Lori Lightfoot.

A grand jury handed up a broader indictment against Ed Burke in May 2019. But thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and a mountain of pretrial motions, it wasn’t until late 2023 that the powerhouse politician finally faced trial and was found guilty by a jury.

Five years ago, butcher paper signaled FBI raid on offices of ‘untouchable’ Ed Burke — changing Chicago history

The case against Ed Burke involved schemes revolving around the Field Museum, the Old Post Office straddling the Eisenhower Expressway, a Burger King in Ed Burke’s 14th Ward and a Binny’s Beverage Depot on the Northwest Side.

The trial featured several secret FBI recordings, including one in which Ed Burke was famously caught asking Solis “Did we land … the tuna?” — a reference to business Ed Burke was trying to land for his law firm.

Ed Burke was caught up in the same aggressive corruption investigation that led to Madigan’s conviction earlier this year. Both men were convicted, in part, for schemes in which they enlisted Solis while trying to steer private business from the Old Post Office developers to their firms.

At the time, Solis was the powerful head of the City Council’s zoning committee.

Solis agreed to wear a wire for the FBI after agents confronted him with evidence of his own wrongdoing. Solis walked away from the investigation with no prison time — not even a criminal conviction — as a result of the deal he struck with the feds.

Feds want nearly 6 years for former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore

2025-07-07T18:06:51.375-05:00

The feds say a former ComEd CEO who “enthusiastically and unreservedly authorized” a criminal conspiracy aimed at former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan deserves a sentence of nearly six years in prison.

Anne Pramaggiore “made the choice to participate in a years-long conspiracy that corrupted the legislative process in Springfield,” federal prosecutors wrote in a 64-page court filing Monday night.

“As CEO of ComEd and then CEO of Exelon Utilities, Pramaggiore could have put an end to these crimes at any time,” they said. “She had that power.”

Jury convicts all four defendants in ComEd bribery trial — and fires a warning shot at Michael Madigan

Instead, Pramaggiore faces sentencing July 21.

Pramaggiore's attorneys made their own request later Monday, seeking no prison time. They wrote that Pramaggiore "has lived an exemplary life. She has lost her reputation, her career, and her law license, and she faces even more potential consequences, including further enforcement actions."

Her conviction "stands in stark contrast to the person she is and the way she has conducted herself throughout her life," they wrote.

The feds’ bid to put the former head of the state’s largest utility behind bars comes a week after they asked for a sentence of more than 4 ½ years for John Hooker, a former top lobbyist for ComEd. Both were convicted at the end of a six-week trial in 2023.

Also convicted were longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain and Jay Doherty, the onetime president of the City Club. All four face sentencing in the coming weeks.

The hearings come weeks after U.S. District Judge John Blakey sentenced Madigan to 7 ½ years in prison, in part for his role in the same conspiracy involving ComEd. Blakey emphasized that he believed Madigan lied on the witness stand at trial.

Hooker and Pramaggiore could face a similar problem at sentencing. However, their fate will be determined by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah, who did not preside over the ComEd trial in 2023. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who died in 2024, handled that trial.

Michael Madigan sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for corruption convictions

Still, jurors in the 2023 trial seemed to reject claims made by Pramaggiore on the witness stand, including about a secretly recorded phone call in February 2019 that she insisted “proves” her innocence.

In their filing Monday night, prosecutors wrote that Pramaggiore “made a conscious choice to break the law, and then she made a conscious choice to testify at trial and lie under oath.”

They even quoted Blakey’s words last month to Madigan, in which the judge told the former politician, “you had a right to sit there and exercise your right to silence. But you took that stand, and you took the law into your own hands.”

Jurors in both cases heard that five Madigan allies were paid $1.3 million by ComEd over eight years so that Madigan would look more favorably at the utility’s legislation in Springfield. The money was paid through intermediaries, including Doherty’s consulting firm.

Fidel Marquez, then an executive with ComEd, helped make secret recordings for the FBI. In the February 2019 call with Pramaggiore, Marquez said he was trying to figure out how to explain the arrangement with Madigan’s allies to ComEd’s new CEO.

Former ComEd CEO testifies that secretly recorded call central to bribery case against her actually ‘proves my innocence’

Marquez told Pramaggiore he’d learned the Madigan allies “pretty much collect a check,” and that messing with it could mean things go “bad for us in Springfield.”

Pramaggiore told him “it’s probably a good time to make a switch” but suggested Marquez wait until the end of the legislative session. She said they did not want someone to get “their nose out of joint,” forcing ComEd to give someone “a five-year contract because we’re in the middle of needing to get something done in Springfield.”

When a prosecutor asked her about that call in 2023, Pramaggiore testified that she’d forgotten about it by the time two FBI agents showed up with a search warrant for her phone in May 2019.

Pramaggiore told the prosecutor that, if she’d remembered it, “I would have shared it with you because it proves my innocence.”

At one point in the call, Pramaggiore can be heard saying “oh my God.” During her 2023 testimony, she said it was because she was “taken aback” by some of Marquez’s comments.

“You were so taken aback you forgot this call?” the prosecutor retorted.

In their filing Monday night, the feds insisted Pramaggiore’s testimony about the call was “an outright lie.”

Jeff Tobolski's 'web of corruption' deserves 5½ years in prison, feds say

2025-07-07T14:47:47.639-05:00

Federal prosecutors want a prison sentence of more than 5 ½ years for former Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, who they say “went on an aggressive and persistent cash grab to enrich himself” while holding elected office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Ardam wrote in a 12-page court filing Monday that “the sheer breadth of Tobolski’s corrupt schemes is staggering,” that he “created a vast web of corruption” by enlisting others in his wrongdoing, and that he cracked jokes about it all.

“You know I don’t take any money in McCook, ever,” Tobolski allegedly once quipped. “I’m as legitimate as they come.”

Ex-Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski pleads guilty in political corruption case

Tobolski also served as mayor of tiny west-suburban McCook. Ardam wrote that he “shamelessly shook down business owners repeatedly over the course of years” and “routinely asked for and accepted a wide variety of benefits, including cash, cigars, dinners, holiday gifts, sporting event tickets, and even free air-conditioning units.”

Criminal charges against Tobolski were highly anticipated when they were filed in August 2020. By then, he’d already resigned from his posts in Cook County and McCook, months after federal agents searched his offices.

Tobolski then pleaded guilty to an extortion conspiracy charge in September 2020. He formally agreed to work with prosecutors. Then he disappeared from public life, while the feds got to work securing prison sentences for other corrupt officials.

Now it’s Tobolski’s turn to face a judge. His sentencing hearing before U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall is set for July 16. Ardam officially asked the judge to give him 67 months. Tobolski’s lawyers were expected to make their own sentencing recommendation later Monday.

Suburban squeeze: Feds hit McCook, Lyons and Summit in latest expansion of criminal probe

Though Tobolski’s crimes might have once put him in line for a prison term of 11 to 14 years, his cooperation is expected to earn him a break at sentencing. Ardam noted in her court filing that Tobolski testified "unprotected" before a grand jury and secretly recorded conversations for the feds.

Tobolski took over as mayor of McCook in 2007 after the death of his father. He admitted in 2020 that he not only shook down a restaurant owner there, but that he’d engaged in other extortion and bribery schemes involving his two offices, agreeing to accept more than $250,000 “as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”

A series of federal corruption investigations were just coming into public view when Tobolski pleaded guilty. Also charged that year were former McCook Police Chief Mario DePasquale, former state Sen. Martin Sandoval and Tobolski’s onetime chief of staff, Patrick Doherty.

Sandoval died later in 2020. But Doherty pleaded guilty in 2022, admitting to multiple corruption schemes that variously involved Tobolski, Sandoval and others. U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Doherty in 2023 to more than five years in prison.

Ex-McCook police chief gets more than 2 years in prison for extortion that ‘takes my breath away,’ judge says

Earlier this year, Tobolski’s name came up during the bribery trial of Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III. That trial, which ended with a hung jury, featured testimony from Omar Maani, a former red-light camera executive who helped the feds build cases against Tobolski and others.

Ardam’s filing Monday alleged that Tobolski once demanded a 10% kickback from Maani after Maani’s business was awarded a project in McCook. When Maani initially didn’t pay the bribe, Tobolski allegedly withheld payment of Maani’s invoices until the kickbacks were eventually paid in cash, according to Ardam’s memo.

Tobolski also got a notable reference during the 2024 sentencing of DePasquale, who wound up with a prison sentence of more than two years. Defense attorney Jonathan Minkus told U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo that Tobolski was “one of the most vile and corrupt people that one could possibly imagine.”

Tobolski “created in the western suburbs an almost unfathomable Wild West-like atmosphere where everybody was fair game,” Minkus insisted.

Bucklo told DePasquale “there’s just no putting the blame on the mayor,” though.

“You don’t join the corruption,” the judge said. “You go and report it.”