Metra bribery figure pleads guilty

Metra bribery figure pleads guilty

By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 17, 2002, 12:29 PM CDT

A 63-year-old Midlothian man admitted today in federal court to having participated in a bribery scheme to obtain more than $4 million in contracts from the Metra commuter rail agency.

Robert Doyle pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in the downtown Chicago courtroom of U.S. District Chief Judge Charles Kocoras. Doyle, who is free on bond, faces six to 12 months in custody, though not all of that may have to be served in a penitentiary, prosecutors said. No sentencing date was set.

Prosecutors have agreed to drop a second count of mail fraud in exchange for the defendant's plea and his willingness to testify for the government in an upcoming trial of a former business partner and alleged accomplice in the Metra scheme, ex-state legislator Roger Stanley, according to a plea agreement.

Doyle also admitted in the plea agreement to having advised attorney Stanley Stewart earlier this summer to "use his imagination" in falsifying documents to back up his invoices for work he never performed.

Judge Kocoras must approve the plea agreement for it to go into effect.

The phony legal bills were a cover for the alleged bribe payments. Stanley Stewart also has been charged in connection with the scheme and is cooperating with authorities, prosecutors have said.

Doyle and Roger Stanley were indicted in June on charges of kicking back at least $130,000 to Donald Udstuen, then a Metra board member, in return for the Metra contracts. Udstuen was indicted in May on a tax charge. He too has been cooperating with the investigation, prosecutors have said.

It was a miserable day for Doyle not only because he pleaded guilty to a felony but because it came one day after he underwent surgery for skin cancer on his nose — around which was wrapped a sizable bandage.

He left the courthouse as a television crew scrambled after him with a camera to get a shot of his face.