'Fast Eddie' Might See Jail Time After All

By Prescott Carlson in News on Jan 29, 2010 9:45PM

Former Chicago Alderman Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak may be looking at three to four years in prison now that the appellate court overturned Vrdolyak's 5 year probation sentence he received last year.

Vrdolyak received the slap on the wrist after pleading guilty to a $1.5 million kickback scheme involving a Gold Coast property being sold by Rosalind Franklin University. The plan went afoul when cohort Stuart Levine flipped on Vrdolyak and wore a wire in cooperation with the Feds. The judge at the time, U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, defended the light sentence, saying that RFU had not lost any money in the deal, so the minimum sentence was appropriate.

But a 3 judge appellate panel voted 2-1 that it didn't matter if no money was lost (and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Niewoehner argued that the school indeed had lost funds), the sentence was much too light for a fraud case. Judge Richard Posner had said during a hearing last December that probation was "nothing" for such a "serious offense." Posner also questioned Shadur's notion that because of the outpouring of public support for Vrdolyak -- including letters from football players Tank Johnson and Brian Urlacher -- that was all the more reason he shouldn't get jail time, saying it didn't "offset all the ethical violations in [Vrdolyak's] history."

Vrdolyak will go in front of a new judge to be re-sentenced.