Vrdolyak The controversial light sentence handed down earlier this year to former alderman Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak is now coming under scrutiny from an appeals panel. The Tribune reports that a three-member panel from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is digging into concerns over the sentence. Vdrolyak, who pleaded guilty to playing a role in a real estate kickback scheme involving property being sold on behalf of Rosalind Franklin University, received a sentence of five years probation and a $50,000 fine from U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who defended the sentence by claiming the school suffered no financial loss as a result of the scheme while the school claimed they lost as much as $6 million on the sale.
Prosecutors in the case took the sentence to the appeals court, hoping for a heftier sentence. At oral arguments today, Judge Richard Posner, one of the three judges on the panel, said of the original sentence, "What is probation for such a crime? It's nothing...The punishment was not a punishment for a serious offense." Prosecutors had been seeking 3.5 years in prison for Vrdolyak. A final ruling isn't expected from the appeals court for several months.
