* Sun-Times…

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich will serve his prison sentence for corruption at a low-security federal prison for male prisoners near Denver, as he had requested and a judge had recommended, sources said.

The Federal Correctional Institution Englewood — about 15 miles southwest of Denver near the suburb of Littleton, Colo. — is the same prison where Larry Warner, a co-defendant in the earlier corruption case that sent former Gov. George Ryan to prison, served two years after being convicted of conspiring with Ryan to steer state contracts his way. Blagojevich’s family isn’t expected to move to be closer to him, according to one of his lawyers, Carolyn Gurland, who said Wednesday the Blagojeviches had hoped to keep the prison assignment private.

* Meanwhile, Blagojevich’s judge, James Zagel, was sharply criticized for his behavior in another case by two appellate justices this week…

Appellate Court Justice Diane Wood ripped Zagel for his handling of juror issues that arose during the lengthy racketeering trial, calling his approach “a real problem.”

Wood, who has been considered a leading candidate for the United States Supreme Court during recent vacancies, was relentless in her criticism of Judge Zagel. The justice ridiculed Zagel’s “private chats” with an alternate juror who had expressed concerns about her own safety. Wood called the chats between Zagel and the juror “very foolish” and noted that there was no written record of the meetings anywhere.

More…

U.S. Appellate Judge Diane Wood told Monday’s hearing she was troubled by accounts that trial Judge James Zagel occasionally wandered into the jury room during the 2007 trial outside the presence of attorneys.

“There’s a real problem here with how the trial judge approached it … having all these private chats with people,” she said. Wood said it meant a vital court record of just who said what to whom was “woefully” lacking.

* More…

“Don’t you find it a little remarkable that the judge was wandering in and out of the jury room?” Wood asked. “This seems to be an invitation to trouble.”

“Judge Zagel’s approach was a little foolish,” she said. Fellow judge Diane Sykes likewise wondered aloud if the juror’s “reasons for needing to be excused spilled over to the remainder of the jury.”

He’s unique, that one.