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* The prosecution’s star witness Stu Levine told jurors in the Bill Cellini corruption trial today that he paid bribes to a Chicago government official to obtain contracts.
Levine also said he paid bribes more than ten times to obtain Chicago Board of Education contracts for a bus company, and he admitted to bribing a postal union so its officials would help him win yet another contract. None of these things have anything directly to do with Cellini, of course, but they do show what sort of person Levine is.
Let’s go to the live blog. As always, BlackBerry users click here and everybody else just kick back and watch…
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 12:18 pm
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Webb is not Sam Adam II, and he is nothing but methodical.
He will take Levine apart bit, by bit, by bit, at his own pace, and one in which he thinks the jury will be able to most easily digest.
These new revelations really hurt the prosecution as well, because when they compare all that Levine has gotten away with; for which prosecutors apparetnly are willing to ignnore and look the other way, especially when he has not yet been sentenced, that’s a big problem.
Jurors end up wanting to punish Levine, rather than prospectively convicting Cellini just because he was his messenger boy to Rosenberg.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 12:44 pm
Makes you wonder how much of that is going on today.
Comment by foster brooks Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 12:57 pm
Quinn, I don’t think you have to be Clarence Darrow to pick apart Stu Levine. You don’t even have to be Dan Webb — you could be Spud Webb, or Web Wilder for that matter.
The question will be how will the jury break: is Levine a vile liar who can’t be trusted, or is Cellini obviously a crook for doing business with him?
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 1:05 pm
It was Joe Duffy who took Levine apart in the Rezko trial. Sam Adam’s was Rods lawyer and Levine never testified in that trial. Duffy had Levine on the stand for over 4 day’s and he had memory loss then. That was 3.5 years ago.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:07 pm
Let’s have a QOTD on who Stuie played with before he discovered Tony & Chris
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:14 pm
In speaking with a former federal prosecuting attorney/now a judge, he felt that Levine’s testimony along with the tapes of Cellini on them will be devastating.
Regardless of Webb’s cross…Cellini is looking very, very bad.
At worse you have a habitual drug abuser testifying. The more Webb hammers him, the worse Cellini is going to come off looking. After all, compare the cross to the tapes.
If Levine is as bad as Webb is going to portray him, why in the world was Cellini EVER pals with him? And why in the world would he be working with him?
The worse Webb portrays Levine…the stain will also coat Cellini.
Comment by How Ironic Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:23 pm
CircularFiringSquad; what is “QOTD”?
And how could the feds possibly think that Stuart Levine would make a better witness than Tony Rezko? Dan Webb is going to eat him.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:23 pm
HowIronic; I think Webb is trying to say that Levine was a ‘master manipulator’ who fooled many, including his client. You have to wonder how he did it? He sat on boards and collected millions of dollars, people trusted him all while he was consuming 5 diffent kinds of illegal drugs washing them down with vodka. He had a wife, kids and business associates who did not have a clue what this guy was all about. The scarry part is, the feds knew and they used him any way.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:29 pm
Oh Kermit — QOTD is question of the day.
Comment by Soccermom Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:30 pm
Thank you Soccermom. I’m learning.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:43 pm
=is Levine a vile liar who can’t be trusted, or is Cellini obviously a crook for doing business with him?=
Yes to both questions.
Comment by Leave a Light on George Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:44 pm
Levine seems like one of those characters you couldn’t make up if you tried.
Comment by Shore Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 2:57 pm
“Dan Webb says of Levine’s conversations with Cellini, there’s only 1 where there’s witnesses (Kelly and Rezko).”
Dan Webb is a smart cookie, he know’s the feds are never going to call Tony Rezko and of course Kelly’s dead.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 3:07 pm
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/8265443-452/corruption-trial-witness-tells-of-drug-use-with-male-friends-at-lincolnwood-hotel.html
attached is a more direct link to Natasha Korecki’s article.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 3:22 pm
http://blogs.suntimes.com/rezko/2008/05/a_different_take_on_stuart_lev.html
This is from Natasha Korecki’s blog post from the Rezko trial 2008. “A different take on Stuart Levine”.
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 3:27 pm
{The question will be how will the jury break: is Levine a vile liar who can’t be trusted, or is Cellini obviously a crook for doing business with him?}
Word; that is what the question is supposed to be, but my point is that Webb is in the process of changing the question in the minds of the jury, without them even realizing their attention has been diverted.
They will be so intent on not having the opportunity to try and convict Levine, that Cellini will be an after-thought in comparison.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 4:14 pm
Someone should find the clip with former AG Jim Ryan claiming he did not know Stuie was a bad guy.
Remember it was Ryan and Lee Daniels who helped Stuie get his hold on IL.
We thought HMO America was created by his father?
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 4:33 pm
http://www.wbez.org/story/levine-steals-friend-and-then-sends-bill-93207
If this doesn’t make you sick?
Comment by kermit Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 4:38 pm
kermit, that came out during the Rezko trial, but, yeah, it’s sickening.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 4:43 pm
As other have suggested, the testimony makes Levine look like the scum of the Earth, but having stipulated that, how does Cellini explain why he would even ask this guy the time of day, much less do business with him. The answer is because Cellini IS in business, the business of controlling and milking the state for cash, and Levine could get him what he needed. You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and Cellini was rolling in it.
Comment by Gregor Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 6:05 pm
People have secrets and sometimes they are able to keep them. I know that is hard for the springfield crowd to fathom but you can be anon in the city.
Stuart was really creative. Bill never went near drugs in his life and was most likely easy to fool about the typical signs that Stuart no doubt displayed from time to time. No matter how good an earner levine was if the old man would have know about that kind of behavior his ass would have been off the reservation in a new york second.
Quinn T.– First time I ever Mr. Cellini called a messenger boy. You must be new.
Comment by nino brown Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 6:39 pm
Seems like the defense needs to ask about previous deals between Stuie and Cellini. If he was bribing and steal for years it seems very logical to reveal previous deals between the two
Seems very unlikely that they would only have this one encounter.
As we nearly found out today( or it was nearly reported) Stuie and ERV had a regular route. Stop after stop. Year after year
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 6:44 pm
Gregor and others, the last time I was near Levine he was getting a man of the year award from some large Jewish organization in front of a whole ballroom full of people for his fundraising efforts. He fooled lots of folks.
Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 7:39 pm
the thing about witnesses is they have to be credible. he is not. even if he is telling the whole truth it is not to be believed in a jury room. the prosecution makes clark and darden look good. the following phrase is inspired by counsel for the juice: for this crime there will be no time.
Comment by nino brown Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 8:57 pm
also credit to the gallo family
Comment by nino brown Monday, Oct 17, 11 @ 8:58 pm