Sanchez on Trial
By Kevin Robinson in News on Mar 12, 2009 3:00PM
The federal corruption trial of Al Sanchez continued yesterday, as prosecutors called Denise Alcantar to the witness stand. Alcantar, who drives a city recycling truck , testified that she was encouraged by other city workers she knew to get involved in the HDO as a means to a city job. When she submitted her application, she turned it in not at City Hall, but at Shy Ways, a Southwest side biker bar where she went to coordinate with HDO leaders about campaign activities she worked on. When she applied for the job, her only prior experience was working as a customer service representative in the private sector, and as an office worker for state Rep. Edward Acevedo, who also had benefited from the HDO's help. Along with illustrating their charges that Sanchez ran a corrupt hiring scheme predicated on political loyalty, prosecutors also sought to demonstrate the reckless and dangerous outcome of patronage hiring.
Since being hired in late 2002, Alcantar has been involved in a series of accidents while on the job, including injuring a co-worker her first year on the job. Alcantar pinned co-worker Earceen Alexander against a telephone pole, fracturing her pelvis and damaging her lungs. Although Alcantar was found to be at fault in the accident, she testified that Alexandar was too old and overweight to be on the job. "She lost her footing or something," Alcantar said. "I don't know." Alexander never returned to work after the accident, and she died last year. Her daughter disputed Alcantar's version of events, telling the Tribune that "she did not fall.... How did she get in between the truck and the pole [if] she fell?" Defense attorney Tom Breen pointed out that Alcantar had prior experience driving a U-Haul truck when she and her ex-husband frequently moved between homes. He also noted that the city provided further training for her, and that accidents aren't uncommon among city truck drivers, given how much time they spend behind the wheel. She was also involved in three more accidents where she was found to be at fault, including crashing into a garage, a car that tried to pass her on the right and a parked semi when it was "very icy and snowy," she testified. [Trib, S-T, WBEZ]