— Months after imposing a lengthy prison sentence while blasting former Gov. Rod Blagojevich for abusing the public’s trust, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told a group of college students Thursday that Illinois residents still have reason to believe in their elected officials.
In a rare public speech to a packed auditorium at Eastern Illinois University, Zagel intentionally avoided references to the disgraced former governor’s case but said not all politicians are corrupt.
“We vote, frankly, for people who impress us as … candidates. And sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes we don’t. The great advantage about dealing with elected officials is that they all have limited terms,” Zagel said. “If the people as a whole make a mistake, they don’t have to live with it forever.”
Zagel sentenced Blagojevich to 14 years in prison last December for the attempted sale of a U.S. Senate seat, illegal shakedowns for campaign cash and lying to federal agents. In a stinging rebuke at the time, the veteran judge accused Blagojevich of eroding the public trust and spoke of a need for tougher penalties to curb corruption.
He was far more reticent Thursday, repeatedly saying he would let his previous writings and rulings in the case speak for him. Instead, he provided students with a history lesson on Illinois corruption during the 19th century, including Gov. Joel Matteson’s involvement in the Great Canal Scrip Fraud.
Though the judge seemed to be suggesting that Illinois has a long, seemingly unending history with corruption, he said after his speech that he was not trying to draw any comparisons between past and current scandals.
Zagel encouraged students to guard against becoming so jaded that they stop voicing opposition and start demanding their own piece of the pie.
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“When you have a large number of people … thinking that way, we’ve reached a dangerous point in the United States of America,” he said. “That will be the worst-case scenario, when the national slogan becomes, ‘Where’s mine?'”
A no-nonsense judge with more than two decades on the federal bench, Zagel, 71, has one of the most colorful legal careers in Chicago. He helped prosecute mass murderer Richard Speck, twice held state Cabinet posts and is on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that decides whether to issue warrants for electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects.
“The judge’s resume would frankly bring tears to the eyes of any corrupt politician,” said former U.S. Attorney James Burns, who called Zagel an “icon” as he introduced him to the audience.
Zagel led the Illinois State Police from 1980 to 1987 before being appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan. His law enforcement background has given him a reputation for leaning toward the government’s position, a view that his impatience and sharp words for Blagojevich’s defense team did little to diminish.
The judge described himself as a career government employee and perhaps proof that not every public servant uses his or her position for personal gain.
“I did it partly because it’s fun to do the job,” he said. “I also did it because I got immense satisfaction from, every now and then, actually making someone’s life better and helping them. That basically is the kind of person you want as a public official.”
Despite the state’s history of disgraced governors and convicted politicians, Zagel said he believes that Illinois residents still have some faith in their elected officials.
“If you don’t have a level of trust, then you’re frozen,” he said.