Wednesday, April 16, 2008

7th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Sorich Case

The Chicago Tribune reports on the unanimous Seventh Circuit opinion delivered on April 16, 2008 in an article entitled, "Appeals Court Deals City Hall Patronage New Blow,"

"In a sharply worded ruling that struck a new blow at City Hall patronage, a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the convictions of four men for scheming to rig hiring in Mayor Richard Daley’s administration—even though prosecutors never proved they personally benefited.
Former Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and two co-defendants were found guilty in 2006 of ensuring that jobs and promotions were reserved for members of pro-Daley political armies that helped the mayor’s endorsed candidates. A fourth defendant was convicted of lying to investigators. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals swatted away their key contention that they could not be convicted of criminal fraud because they took no bribes or kickbacks. 'It is hard to take too seriously the contention that the defendants did not know that by creating a false hiring scheme that provided thousands of lucrative city jobs to political cronies, falsifying documents and lying repeatedly about what they were doing, they were perpetrating a fraud,' Judge Ann Williams wrote for the unanimous panel."

Click here to read the article in its entirety:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/04/appeals-court-d.html

Click here to read the Seventh Circuit opinion:

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/CI1FG7EZ.pdf

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