A small but powerful group of men operating out of one of Chicago`s oldest political fraternities reached into the chambers of city, county and state government to fix murder cases, grease zoning changes and sell tailor-made legislation, according to federal charges announced Wednesday.
The stark portrait of political power detailed the group`s sway over government matters ranging from the appointment of a judge to the acquittal of the Chicago mob`s reputed chief assassin in a murder case; from the selling of a favor in the Chicago City Council, to the buying of a judge`s decision in the case of a brutal beating of a police officer.
Whether they plotted their schemes at a crowded Loop restaurant or traded favors for cash at City Hall, the Daley Center or the state capital, the group of five men was unaware of listening devices the FBI planted in the chambers of one judge, of a camera and a ”bug” planted at one of their favorite haunts, and of the undercover capacity of Robert Cooley-a lawyer turned government informant-who secretly taped many of the illegal schemes.
”Whatever type of corruption you wanted, you could get,” U.S. Atty. Fred Foreman said in announcing Wednesday`s indictments. ”And this movable feast went from the 1st Ward to Springfield, to City Hall, to the Circuit Court of Cook County (and) the highest levels of the Chancery Court.”
Most of the men named in the three separate indictments returned by a federal grand jury are affiliated with Chicago`s 1st Ward Regular Democratic Organization, a secretive and influential group operating out of Chicago`s Loop. Politicians from the organization, long reputed to be connected to Chicago`s crime syndicate, control some of city, county and state government`s most important jobs and services.
Incriminated in the spate of public corruption plots are Ald. Fred Roti
(1st), state Sen. John A. D`Arco Jr. (D-Chicago), former chancery Judge David Shields, 1st Ward Regular Democratic Organization secretary Pat Marcy, and D`Arco`s law partner, Pat Frank De Leo.
Wednesday`s indictments underscore the ongoing influence of the crime syndicate in venues ranging from the Cook County courts to the Springfield rotunda.
Equipped with the tapes of Cooley`s conversations with De Leo, federal prosecutors obtained permission from Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Grady to plant the bug in Shields` 24th-floor chambers.
The taping of Shields` chambers was only the second time in which a federal judge had approved a wiretap for a judge`s chambers. The first instance was the taping of Judge Wayne Olson`s chambers during the Greylord investigation in December 1980, and January 1981.
The indictments are only the first wave in what is expected to be a series of charges arising from an investigation the FBI dubbed Operation Gambat. Gambat was a code name for gambling attorney, referring to the risk Cooley took when he went undercover as an FBI operative, federal sources say. Sources have also said that Cooley came to federal agents because he feared for his safety after accumulating gambling debts.
The announcement of the long-rumored charges were made by Foreman during a packed press conference at the Dirksen Federal Building, where he was joined by U.S. Atty. Gen. Richard Thornburgh and FBI Director William Sessions.
When asked about crime syndicate connections in the cases, Thornburgh replied: ”The indictment . . . does not refer to any connection to organized crime.” But he later advised: ”Stay tuned.”
The charges in Operation Gambat surpass in both money and scope the corruption unearthed in the infamous Operation Greylord investigation into judicial corruption. In that probe, a total of 15 judges were convicted for taking bribes involving mostly minor cases in Traffic Court and the misdemeanors in branch courts.
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The indictment of Ald. Roti also adds to what has been a continuing federal attack upon alleged corruption in the Chicago City Council. In the last 20 years, 14 aldermen have been convicted in federal court on various corruption charges.
In his remarks, Thornburgh decried the corruption in the courts, saying:
”Fortunately for the defendants, this case will be decided by an impartial jury rather than a corrupt public official who`s been paid off to guarantee the outcome.”
Foreman described the schemers as a ”group of highly sophisticated fixers” who provided a ”boutique” of corrupt services, perhaps the most startling of which was the payment of a $10,000 bribe on behalf of alleged mob hit man Harry Aleman, who was acquitted by Judge Frank Wilson in 1977 of charges that he had murdered a Teamsters Union official.
The charges also allege that Marcy was paid a bribe to influence the judge hearing a case against Michael Colella. Colella was found innocent in 1986 by former Judge Lawrence Passarella of the savage beating of a woman police officer.
In a second murder case, Marcy and Roti are accused of paying $75,000 to assure the acquittal of three members of a Chinese gang in 1981. The judge who acquitted the three men in that case, Thomas Maloney, has denied the charges through his attorney, Terence Gillespie.
Among the other charges, De Leo is accused of passing $5,000 to Shields, who until recently was head of the courts` prestigious chancery division, to assure a favorable ruling in a civil case.
D`Arco is accused of accepting a $7,500 bribe from Cooley in the fall of 1988 to introduce legislation to expand the types of insurance that could be sold by travel agents.
The story of Cooley`s undercover role with the FBI began to surface last year after a camera was discovered at Counsellors Row restaurant, 102 N. LaSalle St., aimed at Roti`s traditional meeting place-Booth One.
Sources said the telephone at the restaurant table had been tapped for two years by the time it was discovered in July 1989.
After learning that the long-expected indictments had been announced, Roti said, ”I`m glad it`s over. That`s all I can say.” Roti, 70, said he plans to run for re-election next year.
Marcy`s attorney, Terence Gillespie, said Wednesday after reading the indictment that the charges are ”unsound. We believe the indictments will not be substantiated and won`t be proven in court.”
Sources familiar with the investigation said Cooley focused on Shields after he was told by various 1st Ward operatives that he was the ”mob`s man” in the Chancery Division.
Cooley approached De Leo, who is also D`Arco`s law partner at the firm`s offices at 1 N. LaSalle St., on Aug. 16, 1988. Cooley asked De Leo`s help in fixing a case filed by FBI agents, the sources say.
Cooley secretly recorded conversations with De Leo, who said Shields would ”do whatever we want . . . (and) was only worried about money,”
according to the indictment prepared by Assistant U.S. Attys. Michael Shepard and Thomas Durkin, culminating an intensive investigation by FBI special agents David Grossman and Thomas Reilley, as well as IRS special agents Dennis Czurylo and William Doukas.
”For the past year, Judge Shields has defended himself against all these ghosts, shadows and innuendoes that have circulated in the press,” said his lawyer, Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney. ”I am hopeful that we can establish his innocence.”
Efforts to reach DeLeo, 45, were unsuccessful.
D`Arco`s attorney, Jeff Steinback, said Wednesday: ”The senator and I have reviewed the charges against him and find they are utterly lacking in any support. The senator maintains his innocence.”
Sources close to the investigation say that Wednesday`s indictment is not the end of the federal investigation into D`Arco, 46, who has been a state senator for 13 years.