No Pension for Former Melrose Police Chief Convicted of Corruption
No pension for the former Melrose Park police chief convicted of corruption.
That’s the news that the Sun-Times and Fox Chicago are reporting today. Former police chief Vito Scavo — a strong ally and close friend of Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico — had fought to keep his pension. But no dice.
Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico has long been an opponent of reform — and, as such, an opponent of Commissioner Peraica. The Melrose Park machine is strongly backing Tony’s election opponent, McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski.
Please click here, here, here, here, here and here to read our prior posts on Serpico and Scavo.
Fox News Chicago reports:
Crime doesn’t pay, except…
The Sun-Times’ Steve Warmbir today reports that former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo is still collecting more than $7,000 a month from the taxpayers — even after being sentenced to prison on fraud and racketeering charges.
Writes Warmbir:
Vito Scavo — the crooked former Melrose Park police chief — muscled a Catholic church, a movie theater, a children’s amusement park and other businesses in the west suburb to hire his private security firm, which he staffed with on-duty cops.
He also ordered his employees — while on the clock — to drive his car from Illinois to his Florida vacation home.
Scavo, who retired in 2006, was convicted of racketeering and extortion and sentenced in February to six years in prison.
But he’s still getting his Melrose Park government pension — $7,737.88 a month.
Michael Manzo, who ran for Melrose Park village president in 2001 on a platform of replacing Scavo and is now Commissioner Peraica’s Chief of Staff, put it best:
“It’s a disgrace to all the honest cops who are putting into the pension that Vito Scavo is still getting paid.”
Guess Whose Teaming Up to Oppose Tony Peraica?
Commissioner Peraica has been an outspoken fighter for honest reform and tax relief in Cook County.
So it’s not secret why opponents of reform want Tony gone.
We’ve already written about the “Two Eddies” who have teamed up to oppose Tony in the past — and will no doubt do it again in 2010 (we already have indications that “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak is actively recruiting politicians to work against Tony in next year’s elections.”
And McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski — who is challenging Peraica as a Democrat — has actually bragged about raising big bucks from Melrose Park Village President Ron Serpico and Cicero Mayor Larry Dominick.
Yes, that’s the same Larry Dominick who infamously stationed armed gunmen outside the Cicero polls during his re-election.
And, please, please, please read our prior post on Ron Serpico.
Speaking of Ron Serpico, the bad news just keeps coming for his town of Melrose Park. We previously posted about his former consultant, Anthony Bruno, being charged with federal tax fraud. And we’ve also posted about the conviction of Serpico’s former chief of police, Vito Scavo, on federal corruption charges.
Now, both Scavo and Bruno are in the news again — this time for an alleged scheme to shakedown a local Melrose Park movie theater. The Sun-Times reports:
A high-profile municipal consultant worked with a crooked Melrose Park police chief in the late 1990s to strong-arm a movie theater chain into hiring private guards, federal prosecutors allege.
In a sentencing memo to the court, prosecutors have accused Bruno of a separate crime: working with former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo in 1999 to extort Cinemark Theatres into hiring security at levels the company did not want. When Cinemark balked, Bruno threatened to hold up a certificate of occupancy the company needed to open the theater, prosecutors say.
Bruno denies any extortion, saying he simply persuaded Cinemark to honor a promise to hire the guards. He also said there’s no proof he knew Scavo intended to supply the guards with Scavo’s own firm. Bruno isn’t charged in connection with the Cinemark allegations. The statute of limitations has expired, officials say.
In June, Scavo was found guilty of strong-arming Kiddieland, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and other places into hiring security firms he owned. The firms operated out of the Melrose Park police station using squad cars and on-duty cops. Scavo is awaiting sentencing.
Just remember that these are the same folks who want to see Tony Peraica defeated next year.
Do you stand with these insiders — or with the side of reform?
More Trouble in Melrose…
Melrose Park Village President Ron Serpico can’t be happy about this court testimony:
Michael “Mickey” Caliendo took the stand Thursday in his own defense to dispute charges of racketeering and mail fraud.
Caliendo, 66, former supervisor of part-time police officers at Melrose Park Police Department from 1995 to 2006, was questioned by his attorney, Arthur Engelland.
When asked about the evidence brought against him concerning the assigning of part-time police officers to do security work instead of patrolling the village, Caliendo said the decision was not his to make.
“I would assign part-time police to wherever they told me to,” he said.
“They” referred to his superiors, former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo, and Mayor Ronald Serpico.
Please read our previous post on Vito Scavo here.
Scavo Indictment a Sign of Things to Come in Melrose/Proviso?
Cook County taxpayers supporting reform should be ecstatic at the news of the conviction of former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo.
Melrose Park has long been a cesspool of corruption, with the tentacles of fraud and abuse stretching throughout Proviso Township and other Cook County western suburbs.
As you can see from the below, Scavo was running a pretty big enterprise out of the Melrose Park police station. Who else in Melrose (and Proviso Township) knew of these goings-on — or were complicit in the operations? Is the Scavo conviction only the first shoe to drop in Melrose (and Provis0)?
The Pioneer Press reports on this conviction:
Jurors deliberated for five and half hours Monday before finding former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo guilty of all 22 counts in his federal corruption trial that lasted seven weeks.
Scavo was accused of shaking down local businesses to hire his private security companies. These firms were run out of the Melrose Park Police Station using on-duty cops and squad cars.
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