A brother-in-law of Cook County Commissioner John Daley who has admitted to taking bribes to steer city business to a politically connected trucking firm was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday.
John Briatta, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle, who said he wanted the punishment to send a message to others in government that such corruption will not be tolerated.
Norgle rejected a bid by Briatta’s attorneys to have him sentenced to 5 months in prison and 5 months of home confinement, saying he only breached the public trust after suffering gambling and other financial losses
“To have Mr. Briatta hanging around and watching the Cubs or Sox from his home” is not what the sentence should be about, Norgle said.
Any city official involved in taking bribes “must understand that he is going to prison,” the judge said. Norgle could have sentenced Briatta to more than 2 years in prison under federal guidelines, but said he thought 18 months was fair.
Briatta, a former dispatcher in the city’s Water Management Department, had pleaded guilty in February to taking at least $5,400 in bribes in 2003. He was the first defendant to plead guilty to a January corruption indictment that also charged Chicago City Clerk James Laski, who has since pleaded guilty.
Briatta accepted the bribes from Michael “Mick” Jones, the owner of the Get Plowed Inc. trucking company and a friend of Laski’s. In exchange, Briatta helped the company get city work through Donald Tomczak, then second in command in the Water Management Department. Tomczak and Jones have also pleaded guilty in connection with the federal probe.
The sentence came after Briatta apologized to the court for his actions. He said he never thought his conduct would affect the number of people that it has.
“I’d like to apologize to all the citizens of Chicago and the mayor,” Briatta said. Briatta’s brother-in-law, John Daley, is the brother of Mayor Richard Daley.
Asked about the sentence Wednesday, Mayor Daley replied, “It’s very sad. You take money, you are going to get caught. Simple as that.”
A reporter told Daley of Briatta’s apology and suggested it came from a member of the mayor’s “family circle.”
“It’s not my family circle,” Daley said, but “you accept anybody’s apology.”
Briatta’s lawyer, Theodore Poulos, had painted Briatta as a “kind and decent man” and a devout Catholic whose first priority is his children, a 14-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. Briatta often travels with his daughter to volleyball tournaments, Poulos said.
Briatta told the court the hardest part about prison would be his inability to see his children.
“I just pray that my sentence is not that long where I can get back to them and start a future,” he said.
Poulos said Briatta slipped into taking the bribes because of mounting gambling losses, and he also began getting loans from family and friends. Prosecutors said one of those loans came from George Prado, another former water department worker who is facing federal charges for allegedly heading a local heroin-trafficking ring.
The judge noted Briatta’s gambling woes as he handed down the sentence.
“He had the need for money to spend on gambling,” the judge said. “And as all gamblers seem to find out, in the long run, you lose. And certainly Mr. Briatta is the loser here.”
Assistant U.S. Atty. Manish Shah acknowledged the defendant’s gambling habit and said that Briatta may have agreed to accept bribes in a moment of weakness.
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“But that’s how corruption succeeds, and that is why it needs to be punished severely,” Shah said.
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