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Political hardball is one thing, but this is more than we’re used to.
A Cook County Jail guard has admitted to investigators that he helped six inmates escape over the weekend to give a political advantage to a former jail supervisor running for sheriff, a law enforcement source said Monday.
The 36-year-old guard confessed that he allowed a convicted killer, two accused robbers and two others charged with aggravated kidnapping and battery to bust out of the jail to cast a shadow on Sheriff Michael Sheahan’s management of the complex at 26th and California.
The guard knew the negative publicity would hurt Sheahan’s chief of staff, Tom Dart, who is running for sheriff, the source said.
And the guard admitted he helped engineer the escape to give a political boost to Richard Remus, a candidate in the Democratic primary election and the former leader of the jail’s Special Operations Response Team, the source said. The guard is a member of the SORT unit.
Remus denied any involvement in the plot, and a law enforcement source said there was no evidence connecting him to it.
Actually, I think the escape initially hurt Cook County Board President John Stroger more than anyone else because he has denied the sheriff money to hire new guards.
UPDATE: The Tribune posted a late story on its website containing the same allegations. Looks like they got scooped bigtime.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 5:24 am
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Sun Times didn’t attribute this admission. I hate that.
Comment by Bill Baar Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 6:18 am
I agree, it’s a refelction on Stroger. When it first happened all I could think of was not enough staff, inadequate surveillance,… all budgetary problmes. Actually on Sunday I mentioned to my husband the escape had to have someone on the inside help them. So, much to my surprise when I heard this on the 10pm news last night. One for me.
Comment by Burbs Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 6:43 am
Unless it was a misprint I read thet are 700 guards short.If so then the entire system needs an overhaul.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 6:52 am
The entire Sheriff’s Dept community has suspected Remus pulling the merrionette string in orchrastrating several incidents in the last couple weeks. 1. A gun being smuggled into Div 11. 2. The escape of an inmate from Div. 11 and most recently 3.An escape of 6 inmates who we know know was aided by one of Remus’ former SORT Officers. A job well done to the Sheriff’s Police for apprehendind all 7 Sewcapes within hours and the following investigation and confession of the inside job. It doesn’t take a roket scientist to connect the dots back to “Dick” Remus who (Ha ha ha ) wants to be the next Sheriff. If i was Remus i’d be more concerned know of staying out of jail instead of running it.
Comment by bakpotatoe-Chicago/Beverly Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 8:45 am
Were you guys barking up the wrong tree on the Stroger link to this situation.
The county provided over 230 guards each year for the last two. Stroger SUPPORTED funding for new guards this year. Where’s that in your fact pattern?
BTW, Claypool voted AGAINST funding the new guards this year, just before he voted FOR hiring the new guards and then AGAINST the whole budget and hiring the guards at the end. Talk about your John Kerry-like moment.
Turns out it’s not what you think. Serves you right for jumping the gun and believing “the hot soapy water” story.
Comment by Wow Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 9:11 am
Rich, can you verify Wow’s information concerning Claypool’s voting record? That’s quite a story if it’s true.
Comment by Punley Dieter Finn Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 10:17 am
This whole thing seems too fishy for me. What guard is going to put his whole lively hood on the line to help someone win Sheriff? I just don’t believe it, I think the Feds need to come in and do a investigation.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 10:18 am
I agree with anon at 10:18 AM. Something doesn’t make sense here. It is “too” pat or bizarre. It smells to me like someone is trying to throw themselves on a handgrenade to accomodate someone else’s agenda.
My guess is that a guard got caught and so he figured he might as well take down somebody with him that he had an ax to grind with. Chances are this same guard has been “dirty” for a longtime but he just never got caught at it.
Anybody that would let these prisoners escape had to have a lucrative incentive for doing so. Chances are he has also been bringing drugs, etc. into the jail for prisoners over the past few years.
Whatever the case may be, I hope that this guard is given more than a 6 month sentence and then probation. “Hang Him High” as Clint Eastwood would say.
Comment by Beowulf Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 11:11 am
Wow,
As usual, you got your facts wrong. Claypool advocated for more jail guards in 2005 and 2006. In fact he had advocated using technology to free up more money to hire more jail guards. Last year dollars were allocated to hire more guards, the problem was having the capacity to process the new hires and train them. Stroger’s role in this problem was that he didn’t release the funds allocated for the new guards until the second fiscal quarter. Claypool voted against the budget because too much money was tied up in white collar do-nothing patronage jobs that could have been used to hire more guards. The county pays a guy named Frank Barnes $90,000 to go around talking about the need for men to get their prostates checked out. He is not a doctor, but is a loyal member of STroger’s organization. THe sheriff could have hired two to three jail guards with an additional $90,000. People like Wow (SEIU) don’t understand that a budget is about choices. Stroger has repeatedly used money in the budget to expand his patronage empire, thus other more critical areas like health care or public safety.
Comment by Kyle Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 2:28 pm
Kyle,
You didn’t answer the point. Go check with the Secretary of the Board’s office. Claypool is on record voting NO on Amendment 1 to the budget, which was the increase in revenue estimates for the Treasurer and the County Clerk. He ten voted YES on Amendment 2 which took the funding provided by Amendment 1 to pay for new guards.
He then voted NO on the ENTIRE budget. The phone number for the Secretary to the Board of Commissioners of Cook County is 312-603-6127. The proceedings were the Committee of Finance, February 9, 2006 10 a.m.
At least you DID admit that Stroger put money in the 2005 budget for new guards. Congratulations on that one correct statement.
Tell me which of those facts are wrong and you can blah-blah-blah all you want about whoever Frank Barnes is.
Comment by Wow Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 3:45 pm
So wow wants to charge Claypool with failing to fund the guards simply because he wouldn’t support cooking the books? I don’t need my English-doublespeak dictionary to identify “increase in revenue estimates” as a classic tortured phrase.
Let’s recall that neither elected official whose revenues were magically upped supported the move. By the way, the magical budget increases were for the Treasurer and Clerk of the Circuit Court, not County Clerk. (When acting superior, one may find it helps to have one’s facts in order.)
Perhaps an “increase in revenue estimates” wouldn’t have been necessary if the President had actually implemented the budget amendment passed (and not vetoed) last year to consolidate various administrative departments at the county hospitals? It appears President Stroger is taking after President Bush in deciding to ignore whatever laws he wishes whenever he wishes.
And, given the incredible bloat in the County, why is voting against a budget that RAISED TAXES rather than cut fat a bad thing exactly?
You can do all the good things the County does without subsidizing a thick layer of inefficiency and cronyism. In fact, you can do MORE of them.
Comment by insider Tuesday, Feb 14, 06 @ 10:06 pm
Call it what you want. The funding for the guards came from those estimates, and Claypool voted against it.
Talk around it as much as you please, but when the issue of funding guards was placed before Claypool he took a stand…on all sides of the issue!
Comment by Wow Wednesday, Feb 15, 06 @ 9:34 am
The funding for the guards came from those estimates
B.S. There is more than one way to skin the cat–the book-cooking you so blithely refer to as “estimate increases” was NOT the only possible way to pay for the guards. I’d bet dollars to donuts that Claypool proposed amendments to the budget (that Stroger and his allies surely rejected) that would have generated enough savings to cover the guards.
As I said before, streamlining the administrative bureaucracies at the three county hospitals–a budget provision passed last year that WAS NOT VETOED, meaning it is the law of the County–would have saved millions, possibly avoiding the need for funny revenue math. What’s Stroger’s excuse for failing to follow the law?
Comment by insider Wednesday, Feb 15, 06 @ 3:55 pm
Just yesterday, a SORT officer told me he would do ANYTHING to have Richard Remus as Sheriff; even if it meant losing his job. You have to remember that many of the jail guards are uneducated and psychologically unfit to work in the jail, but are hired through patronage and patronage alone. Many of the SORT guys were treated as “ELITE” when they worked for Remus. Some still consider him their boss, eventhough he hasn’t worked there over 2 years.
Comment by anonymous Thursday, Feb 16, 06 @ 1:47 pm