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Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Talk at you Monday.

UPDATE: Sun-Times has the juror transcripts.

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Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

UPDATE: AP:

One of the jurors at former Gov. George Ryan’s racketeering and fraud trial appealed to the judge to protect her from “shouting profanity and personal attacks'’ within the jury room, according to transcripts of meetings among lawyers that were unsealed Friday.

The complaint came in a March 20 note to Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer from juror Evelyn Ezell of Chicago who was later dismissed and replaced with an alternate juror for an unrelated reason.

“Do I have to accept being called derogatory names, shouting profanity and personal attacks?'’ Ezell said. “Can you please address this issue because this has been going on for the last couple of days.'’

Pallmeyer sent jurors a note directing them to “treat one another with dignity and respect'’ but one day later rejected a motion for a mistrial from Ryan’s attorneys, who said the note showed that Ezell was being coerced or intimidated into reaching a verdict.

Pallmeyer said there was no sign that Ezell would be intimidated.

The judge later dismissed Ezell from the jury after finding she had checked “no'’ on a jury questionnaire when asked if she had ever been involved in criminal proceedings. Court records showed she had brushes with the law although she had never been convicted.

Â· Here’s that Keith Olbermann bit I told you about this morning. (Video is here and Larry has more)

The reason prosecutors describe an official as an official A is when thereâ€˜s pejorative information about that person, and the person has not yet been indicted and had a chance to defend themselves. But weâ€˜ve looked at prosecutor Patrick Fitzgeraldâ€˜s record as far as designating people as official A or official B, and in every single case we have found, Keith, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, when he designates somebody as official A in an indictment, that person eventually does get indicted themselves.

Â· RRS: Topinka blames gov for â€˜dysfunctionalâ€™ state

Â· Tribune: Guv’s `Straight Talk’ ad not quite straight

Â· Mike Lawrence: What lesson was George Ryan to draw when editorial writers and lawmakers of both parties applauded him for engineering a major infrastructure program predicated on revenue increases he pooh-poohed while campaigning?

Â· Whig: Questions about how to proceed with selecting a replacement for U.S. Rep. Lane Evans have been sent to the Illinois State Board of Elections and probably will be forwarded to the Illinois attorney general.

Â· Kadner: Daley wins as suburbs continue to squabble

Â· Mixing drinks — and history

Â· Beachwood Reporter: You get the feeling that the Chicago Tribune, which got the ball rolling when it discovered criminal cases in the backgrounds of two jurors in the George Ryan trial who were then dismissed, would now just like to see the whole mess go away.

Â· BGA react to Ryan verdict

Â· God Bless the Patriot Guard Riders

Â· Rep. Yarbrough introduces impeachment resolution

Â· Illinois’ Dirty Little Secret

UPDATES:

Â· AP: Walter Jacobson, a Chicago television news anchor, reporter and commentator for nearly 40 years, is leaving WFLD-TV, the station announced Friday. The 68-year-old Jacobson was the lead anchor at the Fox-owned station’s “Fox News at 9″ from 1993 until he was replaced in 2004 by Mark Suppelsa. Since then he has hosted a Sunday morning news and analysis program and has given commentaries on the 9 p.m. news show.

Â· Smashing Pumpkins back in studio

TIME-KILLER UPDATES:

Â· Bluetooth laser virtual keyboard. Wow.

Â· Perfect for old press releases (or new ones, for that matter).

Â· Beatles Catalog to be Offered on iTunes

Â· Todd? Is that you?

22 Comments

Question of the day

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Blogging may be light today, but, for now, here’s the question:

What do you think of political patronage? Should political hiring for government jobs be curtailed even more? Should the current rules be relaxed, abolished or changed? Explain.

UPDATE: The debate in comments, which was quite good, got us a mention in Governing Magazine’s blog.

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Delayed & BS

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Ryan trial judge wants more time before she releases transcripts that are sure to create yet another uproar.

The release of 1,200 pages of Ryan trial transcripts has been delayed after court officials asked for more time to review the document.

Court officials say Judge Pallmeyer wants to take a look at the documents to ensure nothing that should remain secret is released.

Among the things that may be in the 1,200 pages of transcripts are explanations of Judge Pallmeyerâ€™s rulings in her own words.

The court also wants to be sure it gets the billing right for everyone has ordered a copy of the 1,200 page document. The price for one copy is $1,064.89.

Releasing the transcripts on a Friday could help bury the resulting story, of course.

And then there’s this sappy article from the Tribune.

Jurors in the corruption trial of former Gov. George Ryan were told last fall that they should expect to sacrifice at least four months of their lives in the name of good citizenship. They never expected that episodes from their own pasts would be scrutinized by lawyers and laid out for the world to see.

Juror Denise Peterson, a substitute teacher from Hawthorn Woods, was furious Thursday that Ryan’s lawyers are questioning the credentials of three jurors who failed to disclose arrests from more than 20 years ago.

“I’m waiting for them to go after me for the three library books I forgot to return,” said Peterson, 44. “We laugh about it now, but it’s the little things that are coming out. I mean, how many people have gotten into fights with their siblings? I’m sure they’re trying to call my sister to see how many times I hit her.”

Boo freaking hoo.

The point here isn’t about if a juror did something wrong in the past. Or if they got in a fight with their sibling. The point is whether jurors did not tell the truth on their questionnaires about their contact with the legal justice system in Illinois. And, to be clear, the juror who allegedly got in a fight with his sibling allegedly hit his pregnant sister and the coppers took him away.

George Ryan said he did a lot of good things for Illinois and shouldn’t be convicted, but that’s not the way this system works. And if a juror perjured himself or herself, then I don’t care how much he or she “sacrificed” in the last seven months. If they couldn’t tell the truth on a simple form, then they shouldn’t be allowed to sit in judgment on somebody else. Period.

And if they had spent half as much energy on telling the truth several months ago as they have concocting post-trial spin this week, these jurors wouldn’t be in such trouble now.

It’s enough to drive me to drink. They truly disgust me.

UPDATE: Krol wonders whether Ryan will ever serve a day in prison because of these moronic, dishonest, disingenuous jurors. (My interpretation, not his.)

UPDATE 2: Beachwood Reporter:

As Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said in a closed hearing last month, if a juror does not disclose their past “in order to be chosen for a particular jury, then one wonders whether the motivation might have been to achieve a particular outcome in the case.”

32 Comments

“Public Official A”

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Apparently, an analysis on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown last night concluded that everyone labeled “Public Official A” by Patrick Fitzgerald has ended up being indicted. Although I should point out right now that just because a Fitzgerald semantics pattern has existed so far, it doesn’t mean it will continue.

Archpundit and Austin Mayor have more here. Atrios has a tiny bit here.

The transcript isn’t up yet, but that will be posted here sometime today.

Governor Blagojevich, of course, has been referred to as “Public Official A.”

UPDATE: From the NW Times:

But legal observers said Tuesday that the former governor’s conviction could spell trouble for Daley as well as for Gov. Rod Blagojevich. They said Daley and Blagojevich had ample cause for concern because Ryan was found to have intentionally ignored the corrupt activities of his employees while he was secretary of state.

“I think (Daley’s and Blagojevich’s) concept of insulation has just deteriorated very, very rapidly,” said Dan Sprehe, chief investigator for the Better Government Association. “The idea that the person at the top would never be put on trial — that whole fallacy is gone.” […]

Stuart Levine, a Highland Park lawyer, has been charged in connection with a kickback scheme that sought to direct state pension fund business to politically-connected consultants who were chosen by a high ranking government figure known as “Public Official A” in court documents.

Though Blagojevich is not named in any court filings, he is widely suspected to be “Public Official A,” and prosecutors have done little to quash that speculation.

“I’d be nervous,” said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies and interim director of the Institute for Legislative Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “I don’t know about his culpability or his lack of culpability … but obviously you have an allegation of influence peddling.

“Even if it doesn’t involve the governor directly, it certainly will be an issue in the fall (election).”

13 Comments

New Numbers

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

SurveyUSA’s new Senate approval trackers are out.

Obama. Durbin. Both doing well.

Discuss.

8 Comments

Good move

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I called the Department of Corrections about this issue on Wednesday and asked them what the heck they were thinking. Why force this requirement on soldiers who have been away from home for a month? I then followed up again yesterday. I would have had something in today’s Capitol Fax but there was no Capitol Fax today. Here’s the AP story.

State prison workers returning from the Iraq war will no longer have to leave their families for more than a week of weapons training in Springfield, officials announced Thursday.

Veterans returning from the battlefield are required to go through the same 56-hour training course they took when they were new employees. The Corrections Department rule applies to any gun-carrying employee returning to work after a leave of at least two years.

But the corrections officers’ union — the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — has argued it was pointless for soldiers who toted weapons around the clock on the battlefield to go through retraining at Corrections headquarters in Springfield. That arrangement meant more than a week away from home for veterans who had just been reunited with their families.

The Corrections Department said it now will let returning veterans undergo weapons training near their homes, so that they can spend the nights with family.

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