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player ready...A member of the Joliet Junior College Board offered a $1,000 bribe to a supervisor at a state penal facility for juveniles in an effort to arrange a job transfer for a friend who worked there, according to recordings of those meetings introduced into evidence Monday in Will County Circuit Court.
Rosalyne Gillespie, 51, a former nightclub owner who was elected to the board in 1983, is on trial on bribery charges for allegedly offering $1,000 in cash if her friend was transferred to a less stressful job as supplies supervisor at the facility, called the Illinois Youth Center at Joliet. The friend, Samuel Jones, is awaiting trial on a bribery charge.
Recordings of the three meetings and two telephone conversations were played to a jury on the second day of testimony at Gillespie`s trial. In addition to recordings made using a microphone worn by Booker Matthews, chief of security at the Illinois Youth Center, two of the meetings were videotaped.
On one of the tapes, Gillespie is heard counting out some of the $50 bills she is charged with handing over to Matthews while the two sat in a car in the parking lot of a popular Joliet restaurant.
Thomas Monahan, Gillespie`s attorney, has contended that his client offered the money to Matthews as a contribution to pay for entertainment and to establish a music program for inmates at the facility.
In testimony Monday, Matthews said Gillespie first broached the deal in a conversation the two had outside a Joliet cocktail lounge on Sept. 21, 1986. Matthews testified that Gillespie asked why Jones had been placed in a ”high- stress” area and wondered if he could be given a different position.
At the time, Jones was a youth supervisor, working directly with those incarcerated at what is the state`s only maximum-security facility for juveniles.
”She said, `I would make it worth your while,` ” Matthews testified Monday. ”I said `What do you mean?` She said Christmas was coming, and she could get me a bonus so that I could buy some gifts for my kids.”
Matthews said he reported the incident to his superiors and to Illinois state police, who arranged the eavesdropping.
The security chief said he didn`t talk to Gillespie again until more than a month later. During that conversation, on Oct. 31-which was taped and played to the jury-Gillespie was noncommittal about the arrangement, but agreed to meet with Matthews three days later in a Joliet Howard Johnson`s restaurant.
In a recording of the Nov. 3 meeting, Gillespie is heard telling Matthews, ”Oh, you`re gonna get your money from me. You tell me what you`re gonna get . . . half of it now or whenever . . . give you the other half when you get him the position. How does that sound?”
Gillespie then asks Matthews if he wants $1,000 or $2,000, and Matthews agrees to take $1,000, according to the tape.
A videotape shown to the jury Monday shows Gillespie getting into Matthews` car in the parking lot of Earl`s Cafe in Joliet on Nov. 7, 1986. The activity within the car is barely visible, but in a tape of the conversation between the two, Gillespie is heard counting out part of the money and saying of the job transfer, ”if it`s that good, I`ll make him (Jones) come up with some more later, this is just a start now. If it`s a real good promotion, you know it`s gonna be better moneywise.”
Matthews testified that Gillespie paid him with six $50 bills and one $100 bill. He said he never received the rest of the $1,000.
Under cross-examination Monday, Monahan attempted to portray Matthews`
testimony to the jury as motivated by his contempt for Gillespie. Matthews conceded under questioning that he had made disparaging remarks about Gillespie.
He also testified that he had told investigators that Gillespie had waved a pistol in the face of a youth center guard, but he said the remark was based only on rumor.