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On Ryan, Blagojevich, his appeal and other stuff

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* Carol Marin made a good point in her column today…

Irony should be a four-letter word when applied to political corruption in Illinois.

After all, not only are the attorneys of Winston & Strawn still defending Ryan, they’re also representing the current governor, Rod Blagojevich, whose campaign fund has paid out more than $1.1 million in legal fees to the firm since a federal investigation of contracts and hiring got under way in 2005. […]

In the 2-1 decision, the majority makes it very clear that the pay-to-play culture of Illinois government that permeated the Ryan regime, with the contracts it handed out, the favors it granted and the perks Ryan received, taken all together sealed his fate. These are the very same allegations the feds are looking at with regard to the Blagojevich administration and its hiring, its contracts and its favored friends.

Don’t turn the lights out yet in that exquisite Winston & Strawn conference room. It may be needed again in the not-too-distant future.

* Speaking of Thompson, here’s more of what he told reporters…

“This case — in terms of the management of the jury and the substitution of jurors after eight days of deliberation — is unprecedented,” Thompson said. “No court anywhere has ever deprived a defendant of his life and liberty under these circumstances.”

* And the Sun-Times also found a professor to back up the stinging dissent filed yesterday in the case…

Northwestern University law Professor Al Alschuler said Kanne was right. “At the end of his opinion Kanne said, ‘I have no doubt that had this case been a six-day trial, rather than a six-month trial, a mistrial would have been swiftly declared,’” Alschuler said. “I think it’s a shame that judges allow these long kitchen-sink trials and then find themselves in a position where it’s almost unthinkable to incur the costs of starting over.”

* Rev. Scott Willis had another take, as you might imagine…

“I’m not looking for an apology (from Ryan) — I’m looking for an admission he has done wrong,” Willis said. “We had a great loss, but (he should apologize) to all the people in the state who put their trust in him.”

* How long will Ryan remain free on bond? Yesterday’s online Tribune story gives us a clue…

This afternoon, however, the court stayed that order, finding that Ryan could remain free while a second appeal plays out. Under this afternoon’s ruling, Ryan will remain free until the full 7th Circuit—a group of 11 judges—refuses to hear his case or until the full court hears his case and makes a ruling.

A decision on whether the full court would hear Ryan’s case could take about six to eight weeks, and a ruling on the case could take until December or January, according to Joel Bertocchi, an attorney who specializes in appellate law.

* More stories, compiled by Paul…

* Ryan remains silent on new court rulings

* Ryan to remain free on bond pending appeal

* Appeals panel upholds Ryan conviction

* Appeals court upholds Ryan conviction

* Michael Sneed: On George Ryan

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 10:54 am

Comments

Desptie the process flaws with respect to the jury issues, the evidence is overwhelming that Goerge Ryan is gulity as “heck.”

No reasonable person, except the defense team,the defendant, and his family and friends could reach any other conclusion.

Unlike the rest of us, George Ryan doesn’t even have to pay his own legal bills - it’s all gratis.
So he can afford to extend this legal process indefinitely, simply because he doesn’t have to pay.

He is guilty. He isn’t repentent for his crimes. I hope the 7th circuit rejects his appeal promptly and sends him to jail where he belongs.

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:23 am
Well, GR it’s a shame he’s going to jail anyway. Not that hw shouldn’t be punished, but what good does being in a Federal low-secuerity jail prove?

The problem is this country still has a 17th Century view of punishment - throw the bastard in jail, execute him/her, disgrace the person forever.

Well, GR is disgraced! He could do some good work assigned to a homeless shelter. Having him wash mats, cleaning the piss off of them would be good. I know, I did that!

He should apoligize to the Willis Family on bended knee. He should apoligize to the People of Illinois. Giving him a death sentence of 6 1/2 years in prison at his age is unjust.

GR earned some credit for what he did with those on death row. Defying the Republican Party and taking those men and women off of death row was saintly!

Like evrything else in life GR has many grey areas, not just black and white.

I would urge people to look beyond their elemental thinkings and see GR for the person he really is.

Doug

Comment by Doug Dobmeyer Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:26 am
Captain,
is my recollection failing, or did not the judge dismiss one juror who said she didn’t see him guilty of anything? That one fact alone makes all the difference in the world; he’s not found guilty and, depending on the government’s wishes, perhaps he’s on trial again, right now, with the presumption of innocence.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:29 am
I wonder how much faith in government the voters and taxpayers will have if Ryan walks for another 18 months for another trial. We have a Governor that couldn’t manage a gas station, and legislative leaders who can’t be trusted by their own party. The people of IL need this conviction to stick or not only will Blago be irrelevant, the entire government in IL will be deemed beyond repair.

If Ryan skates and they have to retry him, it is likely IL will have two governors under indictment at the same time and a legislature apparently not able to get together to agree what color to paint the walls in the statehouse.

Government is Dead.

Comment by the patriot Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:37 am
also, in the GHR trial one of the counts that he was found guilty of, was eventually dismissed. It was the one concerning the placement of the prison. The governor cannot place a dang prison without approval of the legislature. Even a 5th grader should know that.

Comment by What he told me Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:40 am
Ryan is gonna stay out for another five months??? WTF???

Comment by Crimefighter Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:42 am
Anyone know if Winston & Strawn can be investigated?

Comment by Thievery Corp. Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:53 am
George Ryan should be sentenced to a personal visit
from a family member from each of the death row
monsters he took off the death wait. He should never forget the pain he
inflicted on them. And, he should get a visit
from the jail guards who have to fear the rath
of those who sit without fear that they will
die soon. George Ryan and the so called
innocence project…what a joke.

Comment by amy Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 11:59 am
Who’s really paying for Winston & Strawn’s legal fees for George Ryan?

Comment by Covering yours tracks Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 12:06 pm
Methinks Blago has a lot to worry about - IF old Fitzy decided to act. Pay-to-play has got to end.

I don’t know how people can stand up for this guy. And no, I’m not referring to his character or demeanor. I am questioning how anyone can stand up for Ryan in a professional or political sense. He was underhanded and we are now paying for his actions (as a state and the Republican Party).

And I know the innocence project is a good thing. But from a cynical viewpoint, did he only implement the project to deflect criticism from himself and possibly buy himself some time?

Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 12:12 pm
Of course, Mr. Schnorf is going to stick up for Mr Ryan. He was one his and Thompson’s cronies @ CMS! The Deathrow debacle was sad as hell and now this!
Ryan is guilty as hell and needs to pay the piper (as will Blago eventually) now.

Comment by Tunes Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 12:29 pm
Schnorf,

I have no personal or political grudge against George Ryan. He was far more competent as Governor than his Democratic successor.

My layman’s reading suggests that the juror, who apparently would have voted “not guilty,” was dismissed for legitimate reasons,completely unrelated to her views of his guilt or innocence. Therefore, the dismissal is irrelevant to the jury’s final decision.

I guess the 7th Circuit will decide whether “overwheleming evidence” of guilt or “process flaws” are more important in this particular case. I think the trial judge did the best she could under difficult circumstances. Any reasonable person confronted with the overwhelming evidence of guilt woulld have negotiated a plea bargain.

I admire Doug Dobmeyer for his merciful attitude, but GR should spend some time in a minimum security prison. I don’t care if he serves the maximum sentence, but some punitive incarceration seems appropriate given the magnitude/duration of his personal corruption.

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 12:32 pm
Very well said Captain. I couldn’t have said it any better, especially from an average layman’s point of view.

Comment by Tunes Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 12:40 pm
Another point to consider is that many of Ryan’s former aides are either in prison or have already served prison terms. This, of course, does not include the staffers who copped a plea or were given immunity. They had to suffer and, at the very least, their boss should suffer as well. Politics and governance aren’t always fair, but this is a prime time to make something right.

Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 1:17 pm
Team,
you could hardly call people who worked at drivers license facilities his “aides”, so just which ones of his aides other than Fawell are in prison or have served terms in prison?

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 3:02 pm
I know that my point is going to be terribly unpopular but here goes. I still haven’t figured why Rev. Willis is contacted every time something happens in he Ryan trial. What happened to his family was just a horrible tragedy, and I pray for them, but I still can’t understand how a piece of metal falling off of this truck possibly relates to what he was convicted of.

Comment by downhereforyears Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 4:21 pm
Steve, from the DOJ release FIVE years ago:

“The charges against CFR, Fawell and Juliano bring to 48 the number of defendants who have been charged since Operation Safe Road began in 1998.”

48 - and that was over five years ago. And here is an excerpt of an NYT blog from THREE years ago:

“She is one of more than 70 people to face criminal charges in an investigation that led to charges against Mr. Ryan.”

Isn’t that an awful lot of people to take the fall for ONE person?! Even if you copped a plea or received immunity, it’s possible that your name and career could be tainted forever. And the line between political and governmental - at least when it comes to Ryan - is blurred in this instance.

I’m not going to search for names, either, as that would take forever. But even if 70 is the apex, then shame on George Ryan. Rich, I’m sure you will think this is a harsh statement on my part, but I wonder if Ryan has any remorse for causing that many people that much agony - not including the Willis family.

Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 5:12 pm
Team,
you said “many” of his “aides” were or had been in prison. So, I got out the staff directory for when I worked for him when he was Governor. I went thru and liberally counted all the people who could possibly be considered “aides”, and added to that all the Cabinet members, and I came up with a grand total of zero who are or have been in prison.

I know people think I’m touchy on this matter, and they’re right: I am. People make “conventional wisdom” statements of fact on these blogs without regard to what’s true. Talk about harming people’s lives and careers needlessly.

The people you’re referring to almost without exception (I grant, not all) were medium and low level employees in the Secretary of State’s office, most of whom he would have no idea who they were. I think it’s disingenuous to call those people “his aides”.

I also think it’s unfair to tar him with the selling of driver’s licenses as his personal responsibility. That again happened at low levels, and it wasn’t unique to his administration. It happened under Jim Edgar, and Al Dixon, and Mike Howlett and I have absolutely no doubt it happened somewhere in one of the Chicago facilities this week, in spite of the fact that Jesse White has a very competent and aggressive Inspector General. It is a simple fact that is endemic to the Secretary of State’s office. No Secretary of State, including George Ryan, condones it, but it happens.

I reiterate. In the 4 years I worked for Governor George Ryan, I didn’t see corruption. I saw a dedicated, decent human being doing a good job as Governor. I am proud to have worked for him.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 6:26 pm
I sometimes disagree with Steve, but he is right on this one. Plus, he has the fortitude to sign his name.

Comment by Shelbyville Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 6:43 pm
Steve, I join you you in your passion for Gov Ryan. I have known him personally for 25 years and have nothing but respect for him. It’s very easy for people like Team Sleep to assume they know he real truth. They don’t.

Comment by downhereforyears Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 6:56 pm
Ryan did not recieve a fair trial and should not be imprisoned until he gets a fair one. There were many reversible errors and not wanting to force the gov’t to repeat a long and expensive trial is no excuse for violating Ryan’s rights. The judge threw off a pro acquital juror but refused to remove pro conviction jurors for essentially the same offense. To add to the travesty she granted the pro conviction jurors immunity for their alleged perjuries.
I am no lawyer( having decided years ago to make an honest living) but anyone can see that this should have ended in a mistrial. To make Ryan sit in jail whilke the Appeals Court deliberates would just aggravate the injustice.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 7:19 pm
Last year, Secretary of State “White’s inspector general, Jim Burns, on Monday night called the idea of a state agency completely free of corrupt employees a “fantasy land.” “You can’t have a statewide office of 4,000 and have that kind of utopia,” Burns said, adding that the focus should be on the mechanisms White’s office has put in place to ferret out corruption.” http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/09/19/news/119220.txt

Not all of the cases involved Government employees. Not all of those employees worked for Ryan as Secretary of state. Most of the employee cases seem to involve individual corruption—bribe taking for personal profit. From the US Attorney’s website on Operation Safe Roads Investigation:

79 Defendants (more than 30 current or former Secretary of State Employees)
75 Convicted
68 Sentenced
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osr/osrcasesummary.pdf

As some examples that corruption existed in the Secretary of State’s Office before and after Ryan, see the following cases.

Listed John McGowan served four months in prison for taking $2,700 in bribes from motorists to clear their records as an Illinois secretary of state employee was an employee of Secty White. Interestingly he got another government job in Chicago after serving his sentence. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070326/ai_n18755831

Listed Zlatcovic bribery case during tenure of Secty White http://mesh.medill.northwestern.edu/mnschicago/archives/2005/02/dejan_coverage.html

“A secretary of state employee accepted bribes to process paperwork” 3/30/05 SJ-R http://ilcampaign.org/press/news/judicial/articles/2005/2005-3-30Workerfraud.html

March 3, 2004 - There are new charges in connection with the state’s license for sale scandal. A licensing supervisor and a driving school instructor are charged in an alleged plot to ensure that certain driver’s license applicants passed road tests.

This is a continuation of a federal probe that started with an ABC7 news investigation in 1998.

With all the indictments, convictions, and attention given to the licenses for bribes scandal in Illinois, it might seem remarkable to most that it would continue — at least among two people who, the government says, were exchanging comparatively small amounts of cash in return for passing grades on road tests.

Until Tuesday, Fernando Murillo was a supervisor at the Secretary of State’s Driver’s license facility in Lombard. He was in charge of all the “on-road” instructors there.

MURILLO was a 23 YEAR EMPLOYEE of the SOS Office.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=1290261&ft=lg

I just checked a these few cases. How many of the charged employees were already working at SOS before Ryan’s tenure and exactly how many of the listed defendants were hired and/or engaged in criminal conduct after his tenure is not clear.

Comment by Looking more closely at the stats Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 7:38 pm
Fine then. I guess prosecuting people who break the law and have allowed corruption to occur - perhaps extensively - should not be prosecuted. Are we so out-of-touch in Illinois that we should merely accept this chicanery? I don’t give a crap if other SOS officeholders did it. That does NOT make it right for Ryan to have done the same. If Ryan had any semblance when he was SOS of what was going on in his office, be it at the Capitol or at a local driving facility, he should have stopped it. But he didn’t. And now we are debating the merits of a long and dragged out investigation.

No matter how low-level of an employee one may be, you still can say that you work for the firm, company, elected official or government agency. And that means that the top officials within each entity are responsible for everyone who works within their realm. That also means the low-level people and middle management types also have an obligation to the office and their bosses. These obligations for all employed by an office should not change, and while the responsibilities of employees may differ, the commitment to hard work, honesty and doing what is right should not. The mightier you are, the mightier you fall. That is part of the pitfall of being a high-level corporate official or a politician. For some reason, politicians never want to own up to that tenet of nature’s law.

I apologize, Mr. Schnorf, for my misnomer. I should have done my homework on the issue. I also should have clarified my contention. But if that many of HIS employees were charged with crimes of various natures, Ryan’s overall track record of rooting out corruption within his office and either hiring less-corrupt individuals or committing to wholesale change for the better is pretty sad. Had he done so during his tenure as SOS, some of this may not have happened.

I work in politics and I know just enough about the business to see what needs to change and what people care about. I also see my wife, who works for the governor, being paid peanuts to take verbal bullets for a guy who doesn’t care about her and her office. But the governor sure seems to care enough about his high-level staffers to pay them well and actually worry about the stress they are put through. I’m sure the governor’s top staff think he’s wonderful as well, and I probably would do the same if I were making upwards of six figures and given plenty of access to the top statewide elected official. And I would also bet President Bush’s top guns think he’s awesome and don’t mind telling Bush that his policies are the greatest. I guess my point is that subjectivity can sometimes be altered by your situation.

Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 9:33 pm
“Down here,” the accident that killed the Willis children keeps coming up because the truck driver involved most likely would not have been on the road in such an unsafe vehicle had he not received his license illegally. The driver in question also could not speak English and did not understand other drivers who were trying to warn him about the part hanging from his truck. The investigation into this accident led directly to the investigation of the whole licenses-for-bribes scheme that was the subject of the trial. While one can argue that Ryan wasn’t directly to blame for the accident, or that it might have happened anyway regardless of how the truck driver got his license, the fact remains that this tragedy is what blew the whole case open.

Comment by Lainer Wednesday, Aug 22, 07 @ 10:06 pm
Team,

I am not condoning chicanery or criminality. My post was intended to follow up on some of Steve’s comments and in response to some of yours by providing some of the facts. There has been a lot of spin going on here and unfair character assassination of a lot of hard working government servants by flippant, uninformed comments. Was there really this extensive, massive corruption taking place under Ryan’s watch? Certainly not during Ryan’s term as Governor, as Steve points out. The two counts that related to his term as Governor were dismissed by the district court for a lack of evidence long ago.

Steve’s point and mine (and apparently Jim Burns’) was that there has always been corrupt employees in government who will abuse their position for private gain. It is a particular problem in motor vehicle licensing (easy to cheat, hard to supervise—do you send a second employee on driving tests to watch that the first employee to make sure the s/he doesn’t take a bribe while alone in a car with someone desperate for a license?) It is not just Illinois. Google it. NOTE, in fact, that part of the US Attorney’s Operation Safe Road investigation included spin off investigations that resulted in charges of state employees from FLORIDA’s Department of Motor Vehicles. (These are some of the 79 defendant s COUNTED in the US Attorney’s stats—surely you are not saying George Ryan had responsibility for the corruption in the Florida facilities over which he had absolutely no control). Virginia has a had a number of problems too, including illegally issuing driver’s licenses to some of the 9/11 hijackers. Go to any state and you will find cases like this. There is also much theft and dishonesty in the private sector, but those cases usually do not result in prosecutions nor do they make the paper. It usually results in termination, not prosecution or publicity. That being said, there should be a higher standard for government employees because of the unique relationship and trust that they hold on behalf of the public—thus the differing treatment.

Your comments seemed to buy into the spin and conclusions that all of these cases related directly to George Ryan. It was a wide-ranging federal investigation (Operation Safe Road). It included spin offs—like the Florida case. It included more people who were paying bribes than were receiving them (the state employees charged with “extortion,” the feds term for receiving bribes by someone in a governmental position). Were you at all surprised when you looked at the listing of the cases? Did you realize the US Attorney’s continued to add cases that included criminal wrongdoing long after George Ryan left the Secretary of State’s Office? Were you at all curious as to why the US Attorney’s office last updated the list on April 17, 2006??? (see the bottom of the last page) Would that have been the date George Ryan was convicted??? It is. The idea was, and has been, that you provide the press with all of these massive and impressive statistics and numbers and the press will repeat them without going thru the bother of looking at what really lies behind them. You feed them to the press before the trial and pump the publicity, no doubt to ensure a fair trial. The numbers will spread far and wide and make for impressive short, sweet and damning stories. People like you will quote from as far away as the New York Times, years after the fact without having any idea what really lies behind the numbers and what they may actually represent. People then continue to make false accusations against many dedicated public servants who get unfairly tainted by this broad brush approach.
Is thirty employees (so far at least 10% of which, as pointed out in the earlier post, involved employee criminality under White, not Ryan) a lot of people considering the thousands of employees and an eight year term of office? I don’t know. Seems a lot to me, but what are we comparing to? Was it endemic or was there an awful lot of rhetoric (coupled with bon fire of the vanity-like circumstances)? Numbers and stats can be distorting if we don’t know what we are comparing or counting. Ryan certainly could have managed and led better as Secretary of State and he apologized for it, as I recall. We also don’t know how many of the thirty were actually hired by Ryan or inherited from the previous administration—my guess is it would be a substantial percentage of that number.

But look again at the last case involving one of those counted by the US Attorney’s Office in their stats that happened on Jesse White’s watch–the Murillo cases. Recall, Secty White had brought on a former US Attorney (Jim Burns) and empowered him as his inspector general to try and prevent criminal acts and misconduct. I don’t think anyone has ever said that they are not trying their hardest. As pointed out by ABC in the story, but let me emphasize…consider the audacity of that case. It happens while the feds and Burns are all over the Secretary of State’s office. These jokers are taking and paying bribes after Ryan left the Secretary of State’s Office (Jan 1999), had served his term as governor, left office and BEEN INDICTED and was awaiting trial. Yet, this guy takes bribes and small ones at that. Surely, he was making a decent buck as a supervisor. How do you stop that? It makes no sense. I would bet White’s office has probably had dozens, maybe even more than 30 employees, charged state and federally during his terms of office. All of this after the prosecutions and massive publicity of the safe roads investigation. But does that mean the vast, overwhelming majority of their employees are not doing their jobs and doing them well? No.

That these types of crime continue is frustrating, aggravating and appalling—with that I completely agree with you.

Comment by Looking more closely at the stats Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 1:05 am