Eugene Mullins sentenced
Eugene Mullins, onetime top aide to former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison for pocketing almost $35,000 in kickbacks. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune / September 9, 2013)
A onetime top aide to former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was sentenced today to 4 years and 3 months in prison for pocketing almost $35,000 in kickbacks from friends and acquaintances to whom he steered county contracts.
Attorneys for Eugene Mullins, a boyhood friend of Stroger’s who was his communications director, sought probation, but U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said she needed to send a message that public corruption does not pay.
“You were a public official. You should have acted in the public’s best interests, but you didn’t,” the judge told Mullins. “The citizens of Cook County deserve better.”
St. Eve also ordered Mullins to pay $34,700 in restitution.
jmeisner@tribune.com