Those who do not remember their history are doomed to relive it
Inbox
| x |
7:35 AM (45 minutes ago)
 | | |||
NEWS
By Jeffrey B. Gilbert, President, Chicago Council of Lawyers | June 9, 1990
In a recent letter to the Tribune, Chief Justice Thomas Moran argues that the Illinois Supreme Court's response to Operation Greylord "has not been timid." Many in the Chicago legal community disagree. For instance, Chief Justice Moran says that the Supreme Court adopted the recommendations of the Solovy Commission "where warranted." He neglects to note, however, that the court refused to appoint its own commission with subpoena power. Some of the most far-reaching of the Solovy Commission's recommendations were among those that the court rejected.
By Reviewed by Jon R. Waltz, Williams Memorial Professor of Law, Northwestern Unviersity School of Law | January 7, 1990
Operation Greylord: Brocton Lockwood's Story By Brocton Lockwood, with Harlan H. Mendenhall Southern Illinois University Press, 171 pages, $19.95 This is the story of one of local history's most unlikely nemeses, Judge Brocton Lockwood. It is intended to be disturbing and, when it is not merely irritating, it is. Judge Lockwood's account is a chapter in the dismal Greylord saga of corruption in Chicago's court system. It is not the central chapter-Lockwood's role in the investigation code-named Operation Greylord was a limited one-but it is a chilling vignette of evil nonetheless.
FEATURES
By Anne Keegan | December 17, 1989
Ten years ago, a young assistant state's attorney complained about corruption the the Cook County courts. His complaint marked the beginning of the most far-reaching federal investigation of a court system in American history. In this,his first extensive public interview, Terry Hake tells what it was like to go undercover in Operation Greylord. He slept well the night before it all began . . . no restless slumber, no troubled dreams, no hint in his quiet breathing that when he awoke, his life would change for so very long because of what he was about to do. He arose, eager, that morning of May 5, 1980, and made ready.
NEWS
By John Gorman | December 11, 1989
A federal judge has refused to reduce the 12-year sentence imposed on former Cook County Circuit Judge Wayne Olson because he has lied to federal investigators investigating corruption in the judicial system. Olson, 58, has been in the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., since 1986 after he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stanley Roszkowski. Olson was convicted during the Operation Greylord investigation into judicial corruption of taking $9,120 in bribes to steer cases to a lawyer.
NEWS
By Ray Gibson and Gary Marx. Charles Mount and John O`Brien contributed to this article | December 10, 1989
Two undercover FBI agents posing as feuding business partners went to court on a phony case as part of an investigation of suspected corruption by politicians and Cook County judges, according to government sources familiar with the case. The lawsuit, which ended up before Judge David Shields, chief judge of the influential Chancery Division, was one of several bogus cases filed in the county courts as government agents posed as lawyers and litigants, the sources said. The lawsuit, known as James Nichols vs. Paul Wilson, was billed as a struggle between two partners fighting over $330,000 in assets from their failed business.
NEWS
By John O`Brien and Ray Gibson. Tribune reporter James Strong contributed to this article | December 2, 1989
A Chicago lawyer who feared for his safety because of gambling debts wore a hidden FBI wire for at least three years and helped uncover organized crime influence in City Hall and the county courts, sources familiar with the operation said Friday. The lawyer, Robert Cooley, kicked off an expansive government sting operation that led to video and audio tape recordings that may document systemic corruption of local judges and politicians, the sources said. As the FBI monitored his activities, Cooley, a friend and legal adviser to politicians, acted as a broker for people who wanted to fix court cases or to influence the awarding of zoning changes by city officials, according to the sources.
NEWS
By Marja Mills | December 1, 1989
Criminal defense lawyer Robert J. Cooley has been a key government informant in the sweeping federal investigation into possible ties between organized crime and city politicians, judges and law enforcement officials, sources familiar with the probe said Thursday. One attorney familiar with the investigation said that Cooley secretly has taped conversations with Ald. Fred Roti (1st), Pat Marcy Sr., a 1st Ward Democratic power, State Sen. John D`Arco Jr. (D., Chicago), and at least three judges.
NEWS
By John Gorman | November 18, 1989
A former "miracle worker" attorney at Traffic Court testified Friday that he twice bribed State Rep. James DeLeo (D., Chicago), while Terrence Hake, a onetime undercover FBI operative, testified that DeLeo rebuffed his bribe offers twice. Joseph McDermott, convicted for paying bribes to fix drunken driving cases in Traffic Court, testified that he paid DeLeo $150 on two occasions to get favorable dispositions for cases there. At the time DeLeo worked as a court superviser under former Supervising Judge Richard LeFevour.
NEWS
By John Gorman | November 4, 1989
An assistant corporation counsel for Chicago has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking bribes to fix parking tickets while working at Traffic Court nine years ago. Walter Smoluch, 52, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor tax charges for failing to report bribes he took from defense attorneys in 1980 and 1983 in return for dismissing multiple parking tickets. He faces a possible prison sentence of 2 years and a fine of up to $50,000. Sentencing was set for Jan. 31. Smoluch is the latest person charged in the Operation Greylord investigation into judicial corruption to be convicted.
NEWS
By Ray Gibson | October 17, 1989
Lawyers for an Elgin man are challenging his 1984 murder conviction, contending that his defense attorney was incompetent because of personal problems that included his pending indictment in Operation Greylord. The legal challenge is apparently the first in which a client of an attorney convicted in the federal investigation of Cook County courts has questioned the attorney's ability to provide an adequate defense, according to legal experts. A federal judge took the rare step this month of releasing a secret probation report after Ian Ayres, the new attorney for Dito Titone, argued that he needed the document to help prove that Titone's former lawyer, Bruce Roth, engaged in drug use. Roth was convicted in August, 1987, of two counts of extortion and racketeering.
IN THE NEWS
NEWS
By Jeffrey B. Gilbert, President, Chicago Council of Lawyers | June 9, 1990
In a recent letter to the Tribune, Chief Justice Thomas Moran argues that the Illinois Supreme Court's response to Operation Greylord "has not been timid." Many in the Chicago legal community disagree. For instance, Chief Justice Moran says that the Supreme Court adopted the recommendations of the Solovy Commission "where warranted." He neglects to note, however, that the court refused to appoint its own commission with subpoena power. Some of the most far-reaching of the Solovy Commission's recommendations were among those that the court rejected.
Advertisement
ENTERTAINMENT
By Reviewed by Jon R. Waltz, Williams Memorial Professor of Law, Northwestern Unviersity School of Law | January 7, 1990
Operation Greylord: Brocton Lockwood's Story By Brocton Lockwood, with Harlan H. Mendenhall Southern Illinois University Press, 171 pages, $19.95 This is the story of one of local history's most unlikely nemeses, Judge Brocton Lockwood. It is intended to be disturbing and, when it is not merely irritating, it is. Judge Lockwood's account is a chapter in the dismal Greylord saga of corruption in Chicago's court system. It is not the central chapter-Lockwood's role in the investigation code-named Operation Greylord was a limited one-but it is a chilling vignette of evil nonetheless.
FEATURES
By Anne Keegan | December 17, 1989
Ten years ago, a young assistant state's attorney complained about corruption the the Cook County courts. His complaint marked the beginning of the most far-reaching federal investigation of a court system in American history. In this,his first extensive public interview, Terry Hake tells what it was like to go undercover in Operation Greylord. He slept well the night before it all began . . . no restless slumber, no troubled dreams, no hint in his quiet breathing that when he awoke, his life would change for so very long because of what he was about to do. He arose, eager, that morning of May 5, 1980, and made ready.
NEWS
By John Gorman | December 11, 1989
A federal judge has refused to reduce the 12-year sentence imposed on former Cook County Circuit Judge Wayne Olson because he has lied to federal investigators investigating corruption in the judicial system. Olson, 58, has been in the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., since 1986 after he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stanley Roszkowski. Olson was convicted during the Operation Greylord investigation into judicial corruption of taking $9,120 in bribes to steer cases to a lawyer.
NEWS
By Ray Gibson and Gary Marx. Charles Mount and John O`Brien contributed to this article | December 10, 1989
Two undercover FBI agents posing as feuding business partners went to court on a phony case as part of an investigation of suspected corruption by politicians and Cook County judges, according to government sources familiar with the case. The lawsuit, which ended up before Judge David Shields, chief judge of the influential Chancery Division, was one of several bogus cases filed in the county courts as government agents posed as lawyers and litigants, the sources said. The lawsuit, known as James Nichols vs. Paul Wilson, was billed as a struggle between two partners fighting over $330,000 in assets from their failed business.
NEWS
By John O`Brien and Ray Gibson. Tribune reporter James Strong contributed to this article | December 2, 1989
A Chicago lawyer who feared for his safety because of gambling debts wore a hidden FBI wire for at least three years and helped uncover organized crime influence in City Hall and the county courts, sources familiar with the operation said Friday. The lawyer, Robert Cooley, kicked off an expansive government sting operation that led to video and audio tape recordings that may document systemic corruption of local judges and politicians, the sources said. As the FBI monitored his activities, Cooley, a friend and legal adviser to politicians, acted as a broker for people who wanted to fix court cases or to influence the awarding of zoning changes by city officials, according to the sources.
NEWS
By Marja Mills | December 1, 1989
Criminal defense lawyer Robert J. Cooley has been a key government informant in the sweeping federal investigation into possible ties between organized crime and city politicians, judges and law enforcement officials, sources familiar with the probe said Thursday. One attorney familiar with the investigation said that Cooley secretly has taped conversations with Ald. Fred Roti (1st), Pat Marcy Sr., a 1st Ward Democratic power, State Sen. John D`Arco Jr. (D., Chicago), and at least three judges.
NEWS
By John Gorman | November 18, 1989
A former "miracle worker" attorney at Traffic Court testified Friday that he twice bribed State Rep. James DeLeo (D., Chicago), while Terrence Hake, a onetime undercover FBI operative, testified that DeLeo rebuffed his bribe offers twice. Joseph McDermott, convicted for paying bribes to fix drunken driving cases in Traffic Court, testified that he paid DeLeo $150 on two occasions to get favorable dispositions for cases there. At the time DeLeo worked as a court superviser under former Supervising Judge Richard LeFevour.
NEWS
By John Gorman | November 4, 1989
An assistant corporation counsel for Chicago has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking bribes to fix parking tickets while working at Traffic Court nine years ago. Walter Smoluch, 52, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor tax charges for failing to report bribes he took from defense attorneys in 1980 and 1983 in return for dismissing multiple parking tickets. He faces a possible prison sentence of 2 years and a fine of up to $50,000. Sentencing was set for Jan. 31. Smoluch is the latest person charged in the Operation Greylord investigation into judicial corruption to be convicted.
NEWS
By Ray Gibson | October 17, 1989
Lawyers for an Elgin man are challenging his 1984 murder conviction, contending that his defense attorney was incompetent because of personal problems that included his pending indictment in Operation Greylord. The legal challenge is apparently the first in which a client of an attorney convicted in the federal investigation of Cook County courts has questioned the attorney's ability to provide an adequate defense, according to legal experts. A federal judge took the rare step this month of releasing a secret probation report after Ian Ayres, the new attorney for Dito Titone, argued that he needed the document to help prove that Titone's former lawyer, Bruce Roth, engaged in drug use. Roth was convicted in August, 1987, of two counts of extortion and racketeering.
Convicted Judge Defiantly Claims He's Innocent
By Matt O'Connor and Bob Sector, Tribune Staff Writers | June 17, 1999
Thomas J. Maloney was once described by a prosecutor as a man who "rewrote the meaning of corruption," which is quite an accusation given Chicago's grimy history of graft and greed. On Wednesday, five years into a nearly 16-year prison sentence for taking bribes to fix murder cases--something no other Illinois judge has ever been convicted of--the 74-year-old former Cook County jurist belatedly lashed back, emphatically defending his innocence and honor for the first time ever from a witness stand.
Elgin Man's Life Is Spared After New Trial In Killings
By Terry Wilson, Tribune Staff Writer | October 14, 1998
An Elgin man, who was sentenced to death over a decade ago for killing two men in a drug deal ripoff and then granted a new trial, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted again. Dino Titone, 38, showed no emotion when he was told by Criminal Court Judge Daniel Locallo that he would not be returning to the condemned section of Pontiac State Correctional Center, where he has been since July 30, 1985. "Two individuals who were involved in criminal activity were taken from a home, bound, placed in a car and executed," said Locallo, as he summarized details of the case.
NEWS
Acquitted Greylord Judge Francis Maher
By Abdon M. Pallasch, Tribune Staff Writer | April 3, 1998
Francis J. Maher, 83, one of only two Cook County Circuit judges acquitted in the Operation Greylord federal criminal trials, died Monday in Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers in Evergreen Park. In a 1995 interview with Chicago Lawyer magazine, Judge Maher said the stigma of being accused of taking bribes from lawyers went on long after his acquittal, which, he lamented, received much less publicity than the initial charge. "They don't give a damn about destroying your reputation," Judge Maher said of the federal prosecutors who handled the Greylord probe of Cook County Circuit Court corruption in the 1980s.
NEWS
Some Corruption Probe Targets Do Get Away
By Maurice Possley, Tribune Staff Writer | December 22, 1997
Chicagoans who opened their newspapers Thursday to see that Ald. Rafael "Ray" Frias (12th) had been acquitted of taking a $500 bribe in the federal Operation Silver Shovel investigation might well have scanned further for a headline in a similar vein: "Man Bites Dog." Public officials, such as Frias and former city Water Commissioner John Bolden, acquitted in September of taking a $1,000 bribe in Silver Shovel, are among a minority who have beaten corruption charges in federal court.
NEWS
August 5, 1983
By Maurice Possley, Tribune staff. Reprinted from "Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City," edited by Stevenson Swanson, Contemporary Books | November 6, 1997
It was a Friday, and a group of lawyers--some prosecutors, some defense attorneys--had gathered in a Loop hotel on this day for a bachelor party. But the celebrating stopped when the television news broke this stunning story: For three years, the FBI had been running an undercover operation aimed at Cook County's court system. It featured at least one undercover operative and a listening device in a judge's chambers. One lawyer in the room--Terrence Hake--was not surprised by the news.
NEWS
`Let's Make A Deal'
By Douglas Weidman | September 11, 1997
On Sept. 5 (Metro), you ran a story about the Kane County judge who had refused to consider the request by Jeffrey Morse, an accused child molester, that he be castrated as part of his sentence. The judge, in an apparent fit of righteous indignation, said ". . . the court does not play `Let's make a deal.' " This will come as a surprise to the many families of victims whose attackers were set free as part of a plea bargain, or those whose loved ones have been killed by drunken drivers who were repeat offenders.
NEWS
Heiple Sends . . . Wrong Message
By Sarah LaBelle | April 9, 1997
A move to impeach Judge James D. Heiple from the Illinois Supreme Court (Page 1, April 4)? The best headline I have read in a while! I applaud the two women who came forward to start the movement to restore respect for Illinois courts. It was hard enough to take judges seriously after Operation Greylord, but when the head of the Illinois Supreme Court has no respect for the law, it seems an infection has spread statewide. Heiple's allies say his actions are not bad enough to earn the disrespect heaped on him. The head of the state Supreme Court should only be worried about how to be good enough, how to earn respect for the law of the land.
NEWS
Richard F. Lefevour, Ex-traffic Court Judge
January 17, 1997
Former Circuit Judge Richard F. LeFevour, who served six years in prison after his 1985 conviction for bribery in the federal Operation Greylord probe of judicial corruption, died Saturday at age 65. Mr. LeFevour was employed as an insurance claims consultant in recent years. At his family's request, no public notice was made of his death or his services, which were held Monday. The lack of publicity was in keeping with Mr. LeFevour's decision to make no public comment about the court scandal that led to his downfall and imprisonment.
NEWS
Corruption, Crime Met Match In Key Fbi Agent
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer | May 7, 1996
In his career with the FBI, Roy J. Lane Jr. helped apprehend an extortion suspect in the Tylenol poisonings, led the bank-fraud investigation of former Gov. Dan Walker, supervised the ongoing Silver Shovel public corruption probe and even shoplifted. His shoplifting was not a lapse into criminality. Recruited to work undercover in Operation Greylord in November 1981, Lane stuffed his coat pockets full of expensive Waterford salt and pepper shakers and silver pieces in Marshall Field's Water Tower Place store.
BUSINESS
Greylord Sentences End, But Survivors Must Find New Jobs
By Janan Hanna and John O'Brien | September 12, 1995
Richard L. LeFevour works at an insurance company. James L. Oakey sells real estate. In the September issue of the Chicago Lawyer, reporter Abdon M. Pallasch tracked down many of the 55 surviving disbarred judges and lawyers convicted in Operation Greylord. Many, like former Cook County Circuit Judges LeFevour and Oakey, found another line of work after serving time in federal prison for bribery. Roughly a third landed jobs in real estate while six went into the insurance business.
NEWS
`Dean Of Corruption' Must Remain On Probation
November 10, 1994
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid for ending probation early for former lawyer Dean Wolfson, saying it would deprecate the seriousness of his Operation Greylord conviction for racketeering and mail fraud. Though he has been a model probationer, Wolfson's guilty plea in 1985 to bribing Cook County Circuit Court judges "strikes at the very heart and soul of our system of justice," said Senior U.S. District Judge John Nordberg. The ability of the judicial branch to function "rests on whether the public accepts our decisions as fair," the judge said.
A Vote For Integrity In The Courtroom
September 8, 1994
The judges of Cook County Circuit Court will make a historic decision this afternoon, one that will do much to set the course for civil and criminal justice here for years to come. They will choose a successor to Chief Judge Harry Comerford, who has decided to retire after 16 years at the helm of the courts. This election marks more than a change of administrators. Given the sorry history of corruption in the Cook County courts, it is a chance at redemption for the entire system.
NEWS
More Greylord Charges Revealed
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer | August 31, 1994
It has been one of the enduring mysteries of Cook County's endemic court corruption of the 1980s and earlier: how 1st Ward powerbrokers and fixer/lawyers steered their criminal cases to corrupt judges. On Tuesday, the U.S. attorney's office offered an explanation, alleging that at least one corrupt lawyer easily evaded the random, computerized assignment of cases in the early 1980s by paying bribes to clerks in the office of the Criminal Court presiding judge. The allegations, and other damaging new charges of corruption, came in an extensive filing in which the government strenuously sought to block an early end to probation for the former lawyer, Dean Wolfson.
NEWS
Judge Stillo Gets 4 Years For Fixing String Of Cases
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer | July 12, 1994
A former Cook County judge was sentenced Monday to 4 years in prison for fixing several court cases over a decade while his nephew, convicted of acting as his bagman in one case, received a 2-year prison term. The sentences appeared to come as a bitter disappointment for prosecutors who had sought a 10-year sentence for retired Circuit Court Judge Adam Stillo Sr. and a four-year prison term for his nephew, former attorney Joseph Stillo. Attorney Michael Ettinger argued 10 years in prison amounted to "a death sentence" for the 77-year-old retired judge, citing his longtime physician's report of heart, hypertension and obesity problems.
NEWS
Stillo Found Guilty Of Corruption
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer | July 30, 1993
Retired Judge Adam Stillo Sr. and his nephew, attorney Joseph Stillo, were convicted Thursday by a federal jury of conspiring to take a bribe in return for fixing a bogus marijuana case secretly filed by the FBI in 1986. Stillo becomes the third Cook County Circuit Court judge to be found guilty of bribery for conduct occurring after the undercover Operation Greylord probe of court corruption became public. Fifteen judges were convicted in Greylord. "Justice is still a commodity that can be bought for the right price," interim U.S. Atty.
NEWS
Mole Tells Of Crooked Judges List
By Matt O'Connor | March 6, 1993
A former FBI mole testified Friday that a corrupt bailiff put checkmarks 10 years ago by the name of Criminal Court Judge Thomas Maloney and two other undisclosed judges to indicate he could fix cases with them. Terrence Hake, testifying at Maloney's federal bribery trial, said Lucius Robinson checked the three names off on a list of 30 judges at the 26th Street and California Avenue courthouse and several suburban courthouses. "Yeah, two of them are in this building," Robinson, then a deputy sheriff, told a wired Hake as the two talked on Aug. 4, 1983, in the Criminal Courts Building.
NEWS
Tapes To Be Played At Ex-judge's Trial
By Matt O'Connor | January 27, 1993
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors may play secretly recorded tapes of the key undercover figures from Operations Greylord and Gambat at next month's bribery trial of retired Judge Thomas Maloney. In a 1983 tape, Lucius Robinson, then a deputy sheriff at the Criminal Courts Building, identified Maloney to Terrence Hake, an FBI mole posing as a corrupt lawyer, as one of three judges with which he could fix cases. Prosecutors will also be able to play tapes in which attorney William Swano, Maloney's chief accuser, discusses the alleged fix of a double-murder trial with Robert Cooley, a longtime corrupt lawyer, after Cooley began working undercover for the government.
NEWS
Solovy Ii Takes On The Courts
January 11, 1992
A little more than three years ago, attorney Jerold Solovy publicly challenged the Illinois Supreme Court to "show some leadership" by investigating and implementing reforms in the state courts system. It took a while, but the high court has responded-by assigning Solovy to head a new court commission. When it comes to corruption, the Cook County legal system has certainly been in a league of its own, considering the long parade of judges, lawyers and bagmen who have marched off to prison in recent years not as visitors but as guests of the house.
NEWS
Operation Greylord Winds Down
January 1, 1992
When U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle passes sentence on Lucius Robinson later this year, a landmark law-enforcement effort may pass into history at the same time. The former bailiff was convicted Monday of perjury, ending what could be the final trial in the remarkable federal investigation of Cook County Circuit Court corruption known as Operation Greylord. In an ironic way, Robinson's conviction brings Greylord full circle: He lied to a grand jury about bribes passed to former Criminal Court Judge Wayne Olson, who was accused in the first round of Greylord indictments eight years ago. Greylord went public in December 1983 with the indictments of Olson and two other judges, three lawyers, a Chicago police officer and two court employees.
NEWS
Former Bailiff Convicted Of Lying To Save Judges
By Teresa Wiltz | December 31, 1991
In the final Operation Greylord trial, a former Cook County Circuit Court bailiff was convicted Monday of lying to a federal grand jury to protect corrupt judges even though he had received government immunity to testify against them. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle found Lucius Robinson, 61, guilty of two counts of perjury for telling a grand jury in 1988 he never passed bribes to judges. The sheriff's deputy and alleged "bagman" earlier had received government immunity after he pleaded guilty to tax-fraud charges involving a bribery incident with undercover FBI Special Agent Terrence Hake.
Convicted Judge Says He Bribed Bailiff
By Matt O`Connor | November 27, 1991
A convicted former judge testified Tuesday in federal court that, as a defense lawyer some 20 years ago, he fixed a criminal case by paying a $500 bribe to Lucius Robinson, then personal bailiff to Judge Maurice Pompey. Frank Salerno, who pleaded guilty in 1987 to taking bribes as a judge, said he gave the money to Robinson in a hallway of the Criminal Courts Building. The one-time bribe occurred in the early 1970s, after Pompey gave Salerno's client probation for a theft conviction despite a criminal record, Salerno said.
Advertisement
NEWS
Ex-deputy Accused Of Lying About Bribes
By Matt O`Connor | November 26, 1991
The final Operation Greylord case to go to trial opened Monday in federal court with a prosecutor accusing a former Cook County sheriff's deputy of lying to a grand jury in 1988 to protect at least five corrupt felony court judges. Former FBI mole Terrence Hake returned to the witness stand in federal court for the first time in two years and testified that he gave $1,300 in cash to Lucius Robinson, the ex-deputy, in 1983 to fix a Criminal Court case. Hake, posing as a corrupt defense lawyer, wore a hidden recorder when he offered Robinson the $1,300 in a fifth-floor hallway in the Criminal Courts Building.
NEWS
Cooley Denies Fear Of Indictment, Names 9 Judges He Says He Bribed
By byBy Matt O`Connor | October 17, 1991
Under stiff cross-examination at the bribery trial of state Sen. John D`Arco Jr., former attorney Robert Cooley deniedWednesday that he began cooperating with authorities out of fear he was about to be charged for years of corruption. Cooley, testifying for the fifth straight day, said he didn`t believe in 1986 that he would be indicted in the government's Operation Greylord investigation, even though he had bribed many court officials cooperating in the probe. Cooley has previously said he bribed at least 29 judges during almost two decades as a corrupt Chicago lawyer.
NEWS
20th Judge Charged With Corruption
By Matt O`Connor | October 3, 1991
Three years after Operation Greylord investigators went public with stunning charges of judicial corruption, a federal indictment released Wednesday charges, Cook County Judge Adam N. Stillo Sr. conspired to fix a criminal case secretly filed by the FBI. Stillo, 74, is the second Cook County judge to be indicted on bribery charges in the last week and the 20th indicted in federal court since Operation Greylord. Fifteen judges were convicted and two acquitted in Greylord cases. On Friday, retired Criminal Court Judge Thomas J. Maloney, in a case stemming from the Operation Gambat probe of 1st Ward corruption, was charged with taking bribes to fix three murder cases.
NEWS
Ex-judge Tells Of Taking Bribes
September 12, 1991
A former judge convicted of bribery testified before a federal jury Wednesday that he routinely took bribes from attorney Pat De Leo to fix Licensing Court cases during the early to mid-1980s. Frank Salerno, 59, said he frequently "disposed" of cases for De Leo for fees ranging from $50 to $100. On one occasion, Salerno said, De Leo paid him $1,000 to rule favorably in a case. Operation Greylord, a federal investigation into judicial corruption, did not curtail their activities, Salerno said.
NEWS
Cooley Says Lawyer Vouched For Shields
By Matt O`Connor | August 21, 1991
Robert Cooley, already spurned by a 1st Ward political figure in his bid to have a court case reassigned to a corrupt judge, said he went to Pat De Leo, a politically connected lawyer, for help in moving the case. And to his surprise, Cooley testified in U.S. District Court, De Leo recommended leaving the matter in the hands of David Shields, the presiding Chancery Court judge who had been randomly assigned the case in 1988. "No, he`ll do whatever we want," De Leo said in a conversation secretly recorded by Cooley, a crooked lawyer-turned-government-
NEWS
U.s. Says Informant Bribed 20 Judges
By Ray Gibson and Matt O`Connor | June 27, 1991
Federal prosecutors have told defense lawyers that former Chicago attorney Robert J. Cooley, the government's chief witness in several public corruption and organized crime investigations, paid bribes to fix court cases with as many as 20 judges, according to lawyers familiar with the case. The prosecutors have outlined Cooley's past deeds in court documents provided under federal trial rules to defense lawyers who are preparing to cross-examine Cooley when he takes the stand as a prosecution witness in the ongoing Chinatown federal racketeering and gambling case.
NEWS
[Message clipped] View entire message
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting.
Your comment will be held for approval by the blog owner.