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Quarters cops a plea

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Illinois

A former city employee who went to prison in the 1990s for stealing $4 million mostly in quarters from the Illinois tollway pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking payoffs from truckers who wanted city business and failing to report the bribe money on his federal taxes.

John “Quarters'’ Boyle, 45, entered the guilty pleas after prosecutors agreed to drop 11 other charges against him.

In the unusual verbal plea agreement, he made no promise to cooperate in the continuing federal investigation of the city’s scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program. […]

He had sought to plead guilty to a single charge Friday but backed off when prosecutors warned there was no agreement and they intended to prosecute him on other charges. The second time around, an agreement was reached.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 3:23 pm

Comments

$4 million in quarters! That must be, what, 16 million in quarters? Wow. Hee hee.

Comment by Ralph Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 3:50 pm
Does he have to give it back … in quarters?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 3:53 pm
And how, pray tell, does one steal $4 million in quarters. Let’s do some math:

$4 million in quarters is 16 million quarters.

The man accused is 45 years old. Let’s suppose he has worked at the Toll authority since he was 20 (which he hasn’t) That’s 25 years.

To steal 16 million quarters in 25 years, you have to steal 640,000 quarters a year, or 1753 quarters every DAY (not workday, mind you)

A quarter weighs 5.67 grams. 1753*5.67 grams = 9,941 grams. There are 454 grams in a pound. 9,941/454 ~ 22 pounds.

This guy would have to steal 22 pounds of quarters a DAY for 25 YEARS.

WTF….I call B.S.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 4:46 pm
Hey dopes - the guy ran a warehouse for the Federal Reserve - the dude wasn’t filling up his pockets at the end of his shift running a freaking toll-booth…he was carting the money off in armored trucks - hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time!

The mathematician above ought to put down the calculator and head to Google to learn more about the corrupt sons-of-bitches (like Quarters) who have been working in around local and state government for the past 25 years.

Yeah, Mr. Calculator, Capitol Fax is making it all up about Quarters…”call B.S.” all you want and then go learn some recent history about the City of Chicago!

Comment by Tom DeLay's Mom Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 4:55 pm
Sorry Mr. Miller - couldn’t help myself…having a bad day doing the work of the People!

Comment by Tom DeLay's Mom Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 5:01 pm
And you know every once in a while somebody snuck in a Canadian quarter, which is actually worth about 15 cents.

Only one person in Illinois does the work of the people…get back to work, Speaker Madigan.

Comment by Ralph Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 5:12 pm
Who said I stopped working? I was simply getting a breath of fresh air, as the Balzekas Museum gets a bit stuffy from time to time and it IS, shall we say, humid down here on the southside of Chicago.

Perhaps you should get back to work, Mr. Ralph. I can see you.

Comment by Tom DeLay's Mom Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 5:27 pm
Does anyone know why they agreed to drop the other 11 charges? He did not help them?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 9:08 pm
The “Quarters won’t talk” story is a ruse by the feds to convince the local goodfellas that he isn’t rolling on them this time either. Will be interesting to watch.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 10:50 pm
Let’s get the story straight. Boyle ran an armored car business. He didn’t steal the money from the Tollway. He played a paper game with the banks and failed to deposit all the money (actually more than half in currency, not quarters).
Then Mayor “I Didn’t Know” Daley hired him……….and the rest is history.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 10:54 pm
Boyle financed Brian Doreghtys run for alderman in 1991.
Boyle was close to Roger McAullife.

Look into all the Irish Northweside Trucking companies in the Hired Trucks program.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 6, 05 @ 12:39 am
Boyle can take down Ike Carothers (alderman)

Boyle has long and deep ties with Rod Blagojevich.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 6, 05 @ 8:08 am
Boyle has some dirt on McAulliffe.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 6, 05 @ 12:22 pm