George Ryan: High Roller or Pauper?

By Amy Hart in News on Nov 15, 2005 3:38PM

The George Ryan trial is now in its eighth week and is expected to last much longer than the four months originally estimated. But just when Chicagoist started to lose interest last week, they managed to pull us back in.

Other witnesses have testified that the ex-Governor took bribes in the forms of cash and vacations. Last week State Police Master Sergeant Todd Borisy, a former bodyguard of Ryan, testified that Ryan was seldom without wads of cash and gambled at casinos several times a month.

Is anybody else picturing Ryan strutting around the casinos in a white suit with bling, a pimp cup, and a walking stick? In case you wanted to know, Ryan's pimp name is "Reverend Doctor George Sweetness."

Yesterday Ryan attorney Dan K. Webb disputed allegations that Ryan was living large, as he was too busy governing the good people of Illinois. In fact, Ryan apparently doesn't even have enough money to pay his legal bills, as Webb revealed that his law firm, Winston & Strawn, is representing Ryan free of charge. Some estimates say the legal bill would have cost the former governor $10 million.

Millions of dollars of legal services for free? The only thing Chicagoist ever got for free from a lawyer was a pen. Why would Winston & Strawn forego their fees? It probably helps that former Republican Illinois Governor Jim Thompson is Chairman of the firm.

This once again proves that Chicagoist needs better friends.

Photo courtesy of CBS News.