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The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of four former Daley aides yesterday, including City Hall's former patronage chief Robert Sorich. "We concluded that the defendants actions do constitute mail fraud, and that the statute is not unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of the case," the three-judge panel said in its 29-page opinion. You can read the whole opinion here. (PDF)
"The court has made its decision and there is nothing I can add to this legal debate," Daley said last night. "It is important to remember that the city has moved forward and upward on many fronts since the events in question. We are operating in close cooperation with the court-appointed monitor in all hiring." The convictions, which stemmed from investigations into corrupt city hiring practices during the Hired Truck scandal resulted in Sorich's conviction on charges of mail fraud in 2006, and sentenced to four years in federal prison. He has remained free on bond pending appeal.
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that sorich looks just like eminem
In theory, the most corrupt politicians--either those who take bribes or those who enable corruption--should be executed just like murdering gangbangers, serial killers and the like. A bullet in the back of the head, as the Chinese do (they are good for something, I guess, even if there prosecutions of corrupt officials seem rather selective and PR-friendly). The most corrupt officials easily do as much longterm damage as the dumbass who does a drive-by, whether by making citizens overly cynical and apathetic, or driving up taxes (which affects our daily lives), or outright theft of public dollars (whether in cash or pensions, etc) or neglecting, say, track repairs on the Blue Line.
In practice, of course, it's usually the poor who get the needle while the rich and connected get speaking tours and jobs after prison. Too bad. A few executions of corrupt officials may help decrease corruption, or, at the least, let citizens feel as though justice done happen every so often.
In any case, I hope this decision clears the way for other aggressive investigations and prosecutions. Fitzgerald isn't perfect, but right now, he's our best shot.
and if anything, sorich will be in better shape when he gets out of prison after daley finds a way to reward him for his loyalty
Magilla, right on about that Eminem resemblance.
I can picture Sorich standing there rhyming in court: "...His palms are sweaty...His arms, spaghetti..."