When it comes to getting people to cooperate in criminal investigations, federal prosecutors and agents are fond of saying you can either be on the train or on the tracks.
With Thursday’s conviction of Mayor Richard Daley’s former patronage chief Robert Sorich–and prosecutors promise that more indictments are in the works–it’s a choice that’s taken on added urgency for potential targets and witnesses caught up in the ongoing City Hall hiring investigation.
“This conviction will scare a lot of people into reconsidering whether they want to cooperate,” said defense attorney Michael Ettinger, who represents Michael Broderick, Sorich’s predecessor in the mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
During Sorich’s trial, prosecutors all but announced that their list of targets wasn’t limited to Sorich and his three co-defendants.
They named former top Daley aides Victor Reyes and Al Sanchez as co-schemers in a conspiracy to rig city jobs and promotions as rewards for political insiders. During Sorich’s trial they also stated in a court filing that Broderick and former Intergovernmental Affairs directors Tim Degnan Sr. and John Doerrer could be tied to the scheme.
“[T]he court has heard evidence in the trial suggesting that Doerrer, Reyes, Degnan, Sr., [and] Broderick … all may have knowingly participated in a fraudulent hiring scheme,” wrote Assistant U.S. Atty. Barry Miller.
Former prosecutors and veteran defense attorneys said it is unusual for the government to be so frank about where it might go next in an investigation.
“It’s highly irregular,” said Mark Flessner, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Chicago. “The standard line is: `We can’t comment.’ … It sounds like there is some strategy to get people to come in and start cooperating.”
Ettinger insisted Broderick never committed a crime and won’t cooperate in the case without a promise of immunity from prosecutors.
Reyes’ lawyer, Thomas Breen, has told prosecutors he also won’t cooperate without immunity, according to a court filing.
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Attorneys for Reyes, Sanchez and Doerrer did not return calls from the Tribune. Degnan’s attorney could not be located, and Degnan did not return a call to his home. In past interviews, Breen has denied Reyes ever engaged in any wrongdoing.
None of the men has been charged in the case.
As the investigation continues, prosecutors could also try to leverage cooperation from Sorich and his former co-defendants, although they have not publicly indicated they will do so. All four face federal prison sentences after Thursday’s convictions.
Sorich’s attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, declined to comment on whether he expects prosecutors to approach Sorich for information in exchange for leniency at sentencing.
Patrick Deady, who represents Sorich’s former aide Timothy McCarthy, said he doesn’t think prosecutors ever thought his client had much to offer in the first place.
“I frankly don’t know what possible use he could have,” Deady said, noting that McCarthy had only limited contact with Doerrer and Reyes, who also served as the head of Intergovernmental Affairs. McCarthy’s main contact in the office was Sorich, Deady said.
Attorneys differed on what value testimony from Sorich or his former co-defendants might hold. If they were to testify in a future case, defense lawyers on cross-examination could force them to admit that they told their pro-prosecution story only when their backs were to the wall.
“Now they’re faced with jail time,” Flessner said. “They will not get nearly as good a deal.”
Deals are still possible
Steven Miller, also a former federal prosecutor, said that under the right circumstances, people who have been convicted are still valuable to the government.
“Insiders to criminal activity always have baggage,” Miller said. “If they have people higher up the food chain to deliver to the government, the government will still give them a very favorable deal. It’s never too late from the government’s standpoint.”
The best-known recent example was former Gov. George Ryan’s right-hand man, Scott Fawell. Fawell was convicted of using state resources for political purposes and seemed intractable in his refusal to cooperate.
But prosecutors convinced him when he was already in jail to become the star witness in the case against Ryan. He was assured leniency in a second criminal case, but, more importantly, prosecutors agreed to help his fiance get a lighter sentence for a perjury conviction.
The case against Fawell has another implication in the City Hall investigation, because he was tried alongside Ryan’s political committee Citizens for Ryan.
The 2003 conviction of Citizens for Ryan marked the first time in history the government successfully prosecuted a political campaign committee.
Groups could be targeted
That has led to widespread speculation that prosecutors might indict pro-Daley political groups that allegedly benefited from the hiring scheme.
Among the most prominent of those groups is the Hispanic Democratic Organization. Reyes heads HDO, and Sanchez was a longtime leader.
Despite speculation such groups could be a target, prosecutors have not given any signal that they are interested in indicting political organizations in the hiring investigation.
The jury foreman in the Sorich trial, S. Jay Olshansky, said it was clear to jurors that higher-ups in city government were involved in the patronage scheme. He said the jury was curious to learn what Reyes, Sanchez, Doerrer and Broderick knew, but those men never took the stand.
“I don’t know how many times we turned to each other and said, `When are we going to hear from them?'” Olshansky said.
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