Love For Fast Eddie Included Urlacher, Tank

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 13, 2009 6:20PM

Documents released this week show some prominent Bears players among those showing love for Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak, the former aldermen convicted of real estate shenanigans and given a sentence that was, essentially, a slap on the wrist. Over 50 letters in support of Vrodlyak were sent to U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, asking for a lenient sentence. Among those letters, according to the Tribune, were one former and one current Chicago Bear: Tank Johnson and Brian Urlacher, respectively. The documents were made public even as government prosecutors have appealed the light sentence ($50,000 fine, 5 years probation, 2,500 hours of community service).

More than 50 letters in all were submitted on Vrdolyak's behalf, along with sentencing memoranda and other documents...Shadur ordered the documents made public Thursday after Vrdolyak's lawyers and prosecutors agreed on portions of them that would be redacted.

The defense originally objected to making the material part of the record, citing privacy worries. But lawyer Barry Spevack said the defense had to balance privacy concerns with wanting the complete record available to the appeals court.

"The 7th Circuit needs to see all of the material that the judge used to make his decision," Spevack said.

At the time of Vrdolyak's sentencing in February of this year, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, "We strongly but respectively disagree. We believe a sentence of incarceration was appropriate for a defendant who schemed to share a $1.5 million fee with a corrupt insider involving the sale of a non-profit university's valuable real estate asset."