Melrose Park Police Commander Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail
From the Sun-Times Media Wire
Chicago - “I was afraid and I did the wrong thing.” That’s what former commander of the Melrose Park Police Department, Guy “Ric” Cervone, told the federal judge when he was allowed to speak. That statement was one of more than 100 requests for the judge’s leniency during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Cervone, 50, was given 60 days in jail, a $5,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. His sentence was far less than the maximum of five years in prison that his one count of obstruction charge carried and it was less than the 16 months in prison that federal prosecutors were asking for.
Cervone was indicted in July 2007 as part of ex-Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo’s operation to run a private security firm using public funds.
In July 2009, the day before Cervone was to stand federal trial, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted to corruptly influence and obstruct the administration of justice.
Between March 2003 and September 2005, Scavo directed Cervone to manipulate the police department’s time due records to make it appear that certain police officers earned more time due than they actually did, according to Cervone’s plea agreement.
Prosecutors said from 1999 to 2006 police officers were often paid twice: Performing their regular police duties and also working security or running errands for Scavo.
Cervone was commander from 2000 to 2005 and was in charge of creating and maintaining the police department’s time-due records — the accounting procedures for how officers were paid. He was the sole person at the police department during that time who created and maintained records on his computer at the police department, prosecutors said.
Cervone admitted to providing Melrose Park police officers Rocco Venute and Nello Barone with print-outs of falsified time-due records.
During the federal government’s investigation, Cervone asked Venute to lie to federal agents, according to testimony.
Cervone recited the mantra often used by other Melrose Park police officers about Scavo as to the reason for his actions: “You don’t say no to the chief.”
On Tuesday, Cervone pleaded with the judge for leniency, saying he has no children and takes care of his mother and his dogs and now is working to try to rebuild his life.
“I have lost everything,” he said, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and striped tie.
He said he is attending school to become an electrician and works as a janitor at Gottlieb Hospital in Melrose Park.
“I care for the community,” he said. “I would never do anything to hurt the community. I am doing everything to rebuild my life.”
He told the judge what he did was one mistake and it would never happen again.
“I promise this will be a one-time error,” he said.
Cervone’s plea along with about 100 letters of support from the community seemed to have an impact on the judge’s decision. About 15 people, made up of family and friends, were in the courtroom during the sentencing.
U.S. Judge Joan B. Gottschall, who presided over the case, said she believed Cervone would never commit a crime like this again, but believed some incarceration time was necessary.
She read excerpts from some of the letters she had received in court stating the positive impact he’s made in the community where he was a School District 89 board member.
“The community understands the severity of the offense,” Gottschall said. “As far as the community is concerned he has already been harshly punished.”
Cervone seemed somewhat satisfied and relieved with his sentence, but did not make a comment to the press. His federal staff attorney, Imani Chiphe, said he is satisfied with the judge’s decision.
“I think it was a fair and just sentencing,” he said. “She gave him the appropriate sentence.”
Cervone is scheduled to begin serving his sentence July 19.
Six years for Melrose Park police Chief Scavo
Former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo was sentenced to six years in prison today for extorting business owners in town to hire his private security firm — a considerable break in sentencing from the maximum 25 years prosecutors had sought.
Scavo apologized at the hearing before U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall in Chicago, saying he knew he had embarrassed his family, friends and the village of Melrose Park.
You can read the entire article at the Sun-Times.
Vrdolyak’s probation-only sentence overturned
Former Chicago Ald. Ed Vrdolyak’s probation-only sentence for fraud has been overturned by an appellate panel, meaning he could face prison time when he is re-sentenced.
Vrdolyak had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the $15 million sale of a Gold Coast building belonging to the former Chicago Medical School, now called the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
Read the complete article at the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Successful Reign of Todd Stroger
Filed under: Blagojevich, Budget, Corruption, Crime, Elections, Reform, Spending, Taxes, Todd Stroger
At first, we though this story was a satire — ripped out of the pages of The Onion newspaper.
But we then remembered that this is Cook County, where suspension of disbelief is the norm and failure is rewarded on a regular basis.
We’re not sure exactly how Micah Maidenberg defines success, but apparently Todd Stroger fits into that definition, as evidenced by this quote attributed to Stroger himself:
“There’s plenty of people who feel I’m doing a good job, and then there’s plenty of people who read the newspapers and don’t know what’s going on in the county, because they don’t report what the county does,” Stroger said during a recent interview at his downtown office with Austin Weekly News staff. “When we have a story about what is happening with the county dollar today, we can’t get that in the paper so people don’t know what’s going on.”
If success is defined as a bloated budget, a worsening jobs climate, and rampant corruption — then this story is right on track.
Maidenberg throws in this little jab at those who have dared hold Todd accountable:
His critics on the board have decried Stroger’s successful push for a 1-percent increase in the county share of local sales taxes. They’ve also condemned his hiring decisions and questioned his leadership.
Actually, it’s not just the critics on the board who have raised those issues. It’s the major newspapers. It’s the taxpayers. It’s the voters in border towns who have supported (successfully) ballot measures to secede from the county. It’s the employers, who continue to flee Cook County.
And, in terms of hiring decisions, perhaps it’s not fair to criticize his hiring of a busboy with a troubled record to a highly-paid position in the highway department. Even when that busboy-turned-county employee ended up in jail and the circumstances led to the firing of Stroger’s cousin from the position of county Chief Financial Officer.
Just as Todd did when he tried to tie me to George Bush in 2006 — he attempts to avoid accountability and criticism by personally attacking those on the board who oppose him (a bipartisan contingent, we might add, that now even includes John Daley.)
By any reasonable measure of effective government, Todd Stroger has failed.
And, if newspapers like the Austin Weekly News can sell more papers by celebrating this failure — then more power to them.
But shame on them.
Former Daley aide’s corruption and patronage trial began today
The corruption and patronage trial of former Daley aide and Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez began today.
Sanchez is accused of abusing his connection with the Daley-supporting Hispanic Democratic Organization and his position as Streets and Sanitation commissioner to award Mayor Daley’s allies with promotions and city jobs.
Chicago Breaking News reports:
While he was city Streets and Sanitation commissioner, Al Sanchez sat atop a powerful political organization that traded hundreds of city jobs for campaign work, stripping the legitimacy from Chicago’s hiring system, federal prosecutors said today.
In opening remarks to a federal jury at Sanchez’s trial, a prosecutor said auditoriums full of applicants seeking city jobs waited for interviews that didn’t matter because of the corruption.
“It was a sham from top to bottom,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven Grimes. “Mr. Sanchez used city jobs as currency.”
As Chicago politics’ excessive patronage and widespread corruption continue to embarrass Chicago on a national level, Cook County needs government reform more than ever.
Support Commissioner Peraica and his efforts to reform Cook County and dirty Chicago politics.
KADNER: ‘Fast Eddie a Disgrace’
Phil Kadner hits it on the head with this article:
“Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, who spent much of his life undermining the public’s confidence in government, has done it again.
Vrdolyak, a former power on the Chicago City Council and former chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, was fined $50,000 and sentenced to five years’ probation in a real estate scam that could’ve sent him to a federal prison for more than three years.
In taverns throughout the 10th Ward folks had to be hoisting beers Thursday night, laughing and shouting, “Eddie’s done it again.”
That’s the real problem with guys like Vrdolyak. They become heroes to Chicagoans. They’re so smart, so slick, that even when they get caught red-handed or on an FBI wire, they manage to come out smelling like a rose.
The mopes of the world are the honest guys, the ones who don’t cut deals behind closed doors and play by the rules. They don’t get elected to nothing, don’t get any city contracts and, should they ever be in need of a government job, can’t find one.
Judgment Day Near for Fast Eddie
Federal prosecutors made their case against longtime political insider Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak this week - urging Judge Milton Shadur to put Eddie in jail for 41 months. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that, in the memo filed this week, federal prosecutors said Vrdolyak “lived a ’second, largely hidden life’ of crime.”
The statement summed up Vrdolyak’s actions in their conspiracy to split a $1.5 million kickback from the sale of a $15 million Gold Coast building belonging to the former Chicago Medical School, now the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
Vrdolyak, of course, has long been in local headlines for his public political exploits. He has been active in Cook County politics on both sides of the aisle - even supporting the candidacy of Michael LaPidus, who ran as a Republican against Tony Peraica for Lyons Township GOP Committeeman in 2006. (If Vrdolyak is convicted, will LaPidus return his tainted $1,000 contribution?)
For now, it’s a wait-and-see game to learn how long Fast Eddie will have to live behind bars.
Striving to be … Detroit?
While Chicago was not alone in seeing an increase in murders in 2008, there were a number of large cities - including Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles - that saw a decrease in homicides.
Figures released by 25 of the 52 police departments in cities with a population of over 350,000 show an overall drop of 2.7 percent from last year.
You know something’s wrong when Chicagoans are striving to be more like … Detroit.
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