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| IL ex-gov Ryan found guilty on all counts |
| 2006-04-17 |
| (The guy that released all the guys on death row and made it easy for terrorists to get trucker licenses.) A federal jury convicted former Gov. George Ryan today on all charges that as secretary of state he steered state business to cronies in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits for himself and his family. Lobbyist Lawrence Warner, a close Ryan friend, was also found guilty on all charges against him in the historic trial. On their eleventh day of deliberations, the six-woman, six-man jury found Ryan, 72, guilty on 18 counts of racketeering, mail fraud, false statements and tax violations. Warner, 67, was convicted on 12 counts of racketeering, mail fraud, extortion, money laundering and evading cash-reporting requirements. The verdict came three weeks after U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer excused two jurors during deliberations following Tribune stories that both had apparently concealed arrest records during jury selection in September. Rejecting defense calls for a mistrial, Pallmeyer added two alternates in their place and ordered that deliberations restart from scratch on March 29. The initial eight-day deliberations had been plagued by apparent infighting among jurors, prompting Pallmeyer at one point to instruct them to treat one another "with dignity and respect." The same problems didn't appear to be taking place with the jury after the two alternates were added. The jury didn't send out any notes raising questions or problems in the final four days of deliberations. The trial played out over 5Å“ months as prosecutors portrayed Ryan as a shameless, greedy politician at the center of a series of dirty deals that enriched Warner and other friends who kicked back gifts to Ryan and his family. But the defense called the evidence woefully inadequate, arguing not a single witness saw Ryan take money to influence his decisions and assailing key government witnesses for slanting their testimony to win leniency. Neither Ryan nor Warner testified. The charges against Ryan largely stemmed from his scandal-scarred tenure as secretary of state. But he was accused as governor of lying to FBI agents, arranging a lucrative make-work lobbying deal for a friend, lobbyist Arthur "Ron" Swanson, and leaking the selection of a state prison site to Swanson, who improperly profited on the tip. Ryan also diverted state resources and staffers to half a dozen political campaigns, including his 1998 election as governor. Prosecutors alleged that in 1995 Ryan helped arrange to be paid secretly by former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm's ill-fated presidential campaign, funneled the money through a company operated by a trusted operative and passed on nearly $10,000 to four daughters. The defense brought out that Ryan was given thousands of dollars in cash in annual Christmas gifts from employees to try to counter bank records showing Ryan withdrew only $6,700 cash in nearly a decade. Prosecutors argued the limited withdrawals were circumstantial evidence that Ryan's cash spending came from kickbacks on state contracts and leases. Among the wide-ranging charges against Ryan, prosecutors alleged as secretary of state he gutted the office's investigative arm in 1995 to stop its agents from looking into shady fundraising practices of his campaign apparatus. One investigator testified that Dean Bauer, Ryan's handpicked inspector general, refused to let him investigate a 1994 crash outside Milwaukee in which six children of Duane and Janice Willis were killed. The fiery accident occurred when a heavy piece of metal undercarriage fell from a truck and punctured the gas tank of the Willis van. The truck driver, Ricardo Guzman, had paid a bribe for his commercial driver's license in Illinois and could not understand warnings from other truckers, in English, that the piece was dangling dangerously from his rig. Jurors heard limited details about the crash because Pallmeyer considered the issue too prejudicial for the defense. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #8 Wrong Ryan, Eric...but still tasty. This guy's 72, not the one running against Osama Obama |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-04-17 19:26 |
| #7 And the odds are none of this would of ever come out if the majority of a family hadn't burned to death on I-94 in Milwaukee when some scrap fell off of a truck driven by one of the "qualified" truck drivers who got his ticket through the scam. Of course I am not shocked that Ryan was even mildly crooked. I assume that ALL politicians in the Land of Lincoln are. But the good news is they are getting closer and closer to Lil Richie Daley |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2006-04-17 19:12 |
| #6 Well, now he'll have his chance for kinky sex™. Not that he'll like it. Google the reasons for his divorce from Jeri "7 of 9" Ryan. Definitely NSFW. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-04-17 19:11 |
| #5 CS - Ryan is a Republican. Although you had to read to the tenth paragraph in the AP story to find that out. Don't know why they didn't stick to the story line. |
| Posted by: Cruper Glaiger4826 2006-04-17 16:47 |
| #4 "CULTURE OF CORRUPTION" Anyone? Oh but that term is reserved for for un-convicted Republicans and not convicted Demoncrats. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-04-17 16:46 |
| #3 "I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of public service that I provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years, and needless to say I am disappointed in the outcome," the former governor said. Yeah, George, what's the world coming to? Forty years on the government tit and a guys not even allowed to make a coupla hundred grand on the side? Ungrateful bastards! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-04-17 16:15 |
| #2 A federal jury convicted former Gov. George Ryan today on all charges that as secretary of state he steered state business to cronies in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits for himself and his family .... but this is the way we've always done it. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-04-17 15:50 |
| #1 Cheese, crooked pols in ILLINOIS? I'm shocked, just SHOCKED! |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-04-17 15:09 |