A year after a jury deadlocked on all charges, a former AT&T executive accused of bribing then-House Speaker Michael Madigan entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors Tuesday that will leave him without a felony conviction.
As part of the agreement, Paul La Schiazza admitted that he directed his underlings to hire former state Rep. Edward Acecvedo in order to influence Madigan and avoid the powerful speaker’s opposition to a controversial bill to end mandated landline service in Illinois, violating a law against using a facility in interstate commerce to promote unlawful activity. He also agreed to pay a $200,000 fine.
In exchange, prosecutors will dismiss the indictment against La Schiazza in one year, according to the agreement.
Appearing remotely before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettlemen, La Schiazza acknowledged all the terms of the deal, which the judge referred to several times as “generous.”
“This is a very generous agreement, I have to say,” Gettlemen said. “I think it’s surprisingly generous … and I have no doubt Mr. La Schiazza will be able to fulfill his obligations.”
La Schiazza’s attorney, Tinos Diamantatos, declined to comment after the hearing.
The deferred-prosecution deal scuttles a retrial that had been set for January. It also comes on Madigan’s first full day in federal prison in West Virginia, where he’s serving a 7 ½-year sentence on other corruption counts. The jury in Madigan’s trial also deadlocked on the AT&T-related charge in the indictment.
Also Tuesday, former Commonwealth Edison executive John Hooker, 76, was set to report to federal prison to begin serving his 18-month sentence in another Madigan-related bribery scheme.
La Schiazza, 68, was charged in October 2022 with conspiracy, federal program bribery and using a facility in interstate commerce to promote unlawful activity.
The charges alleged La Schiazza agreed in 2017 to pay $2,500 a month to Acevedo, Madigan’s onetime assistant majority leader, through the lobbying firm of longtime Madigan political aide Tom Cullen.
More Top Picks Ravpower Deluxe 16750
In exchange for the payments, the speaker helped shepherd AT&T’s bill ending mandated landline service through the General Assembly, giving La Schiazza a career notch on his belt and saving the telecommunications giant millions of dollars, according to prosecutors.
La Schiazza’s attorneys argued it was nothing more than legal lobbying, and that there was no evidence Acevedo’s hiring was tied to any official action by Madigan.
The trial in September 2024 was seen as a sort of litmus test for prosecutors in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision that the federal 666 bribery statute required an advance agreement by both sides to exchange an official act for something of value, rather than a “gratuity” given after the fact.
After a weeklong trial, including three days of deliberation, Gettlemen declared a mistrial when the jury announced it had deadlocked. The panel was overwhelmingly leaning toward a conviction, juror Jocelyn Duran told the Tribune, but a lone holdout was not convinced and said there was nothing that could change their mind.
One juror who stayed behind to talk to lawyers in the case in open court, a 62-year-old man from Naperville, told the defense panel that the discussions bogged down over whether there had been an “exchange” between La Schiazza and Madigan and if La Schiazza knew it was improper.
“We really struggled with (La Schiazza’s) intent,” he said.
Madigan, meanwhile, was convicted in February on 10 of 23 counts, including one count of conspiracy related to a multipronged scheme to accept and solicit bribes from utility giant Commonwealth Edison. Jurors also convicted him on two counts of bribery and one Travel Act violation related to payments funneled to Madigan associates for do-nothing ComEd subcontracts.
Madigan also was convicted on six out of seven counts — including wire fraud and Travel Act violations — regarding a plan to get ex-Ald. Daniel Solis, a key FBI mole who testified at length in the trial, appointed to a state board.
But the jury’s final verdict was mixed, deadlocking on several counts — including the AT&T-related count and the marquee racketeering conspiracy charge — and acquitting Madigan on numerous others. Jurors also deadlocked on all six counts related to Madigan’s co-defendant, Michael McClain.
Unlike in La Schiazza’s first trial, prosecutors in Madigan’s case called Acevedo, who suffers from dementia and various other ailments, to the witness stand to testify about the payments he received from AT&T through Cullen.
Prosecutors fought hard to get Acevedo in the courtroom. He’d initially invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, but the U.S. attorney’s office secured a grant of immunity that compelled him to take the stand.
Acevedo’s attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti then argued strenuously that Acevedo’s dementia diagnosis meant he is not competent to testify reliably. Blakey determined that Acevedo could take the stand only after interviewing him at length in chambers.
In the end it was unclear whether Acevedo’s testimony helped the government. He testified that he never asked anyone for a no-show job and even talked about his assignments with AT&T lobbyist Michael Lieteau at the “rail,” a popular gathering spot in the state Capitol. Acevedo also said that his sons had actually done some work for AT&T, and when he was getting paid he believed he was acting in conjunction with them.
“We worked as a team,” Acevedo said.
More Top Picks Best Counter Stools For Kitchens
Lieteau, however, later testified that he did not ever recall asking Acevedo questions at the rail.
“Any work that he was performing for AT&T, I was not aware,” Lieteau said.
Prosecutors had not publicly revealed whether they planned to call Acevedo in La Schiazza’s second trial.