* Jon Seidel and Robert Herguth…
Federal prosecutors filed long-anticipated criminal charges Friday against former Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski, accusing him of a conspiracy to commit extortion.
The feds also accused Tobolski of filing a false income tax return. The charges against Tobolski appeared in a document known as an information, which typically signals a defendant intends to plead guilty.
Tobolski resigned in March from his posts on the Cook County Board and in McCook, where he’d been mayor, months after federal agents searched his offices at McCook’s Village Hall. Agents also seized $55,205 in cash from Tobolski’s home at that time, including $51,611 taken “from within a safe,” according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
* Jason Meisner…
According to the bare-bones charges, Tobolski allegedly conspired with an unnamed McCook official to extort a victim identified only as Individual A. He also allegedly filed a falsified income tax return for 2018, according the the paperwork.
Defendants charged by criminal information typically intend to plead guilty.
