From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Missing record let Ryan son-in-law off the hook

December 15, 2002

BY TIM NOVAK STAFF REPORTER

When Gov. Ryan's son-in-law, Michael Fairman, was convicted of drunken driving in 1998, the second time in four years, his license--under a tough zero-tolerance law backed by Ryan--should have been revoked.

But Fairman did not lose his license.

Instead Fairman was sentenced only to supervision for the 1998 drunken driving conviction by a judge who had no clue he had been convicted of a DUI once before. That 1994 DUI conviction was missing from the driving record provided to the court by the Illinois secretary of state's office, which Ryan ran at the time the first DUI conviction should have been recorded.

Key dates

*Oct. 28, 1993: Michael Fairman is charged with drunken driving in Chicago, but the charge is dismissed.

*Nov. 24, 1994: Fairman is charged with drunken driving in Glenview. He also is charged with hitting a police officer.

*May 22, 1995: Fairman is sentenced to one year of supervision for the 1994 DUI.

*Dec. 31, 1995: Fairman marries Lynda Ryan. Her father, George Ryan, is Illinois secretary of state.

*Jan. 13, 1998: Fairman is charged with DUI on Lake Shore Drive.

*July 13, 1999: Fairman pleads guilty to the 1998 DUI. He is sentenced to supervision by a judge who is unaware of the first DUI conviction, either because it was never put on Fairman's record or was removed from the record.

The Sun-Times could not determine whether the 1994 DUI conviction was never put on Fairman's record or later erased. The Cook County court clerk might have failed to report the first DUI conviction to the secretary of state's office, which state officials describe as a nagging problem they're trying to fix.

Or Ryan's staff in the secretary of state's office might have failed to put the 1994 DUI conviction on Fairman's record. Fairman was dating Ryan's daughter Lynda at the time and, eight months later, became his son-in-law.

The Sun-Times learned of Fairman's two DUI convictions--as well as 32 other traffic tickets in the last nine years--by checking court records in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties. But the Sun-Times was unable to learn whether any of those tickets, other than the 1994 DUI, are inappropriately missing from Fairman's driving record, because Secretary of State Jesse White won't release driving records to the public.

On Friday, in response to questions from the Sun-Times, White's staff began scouring court records to determine whether they have a complete account of Fairman's driving violations.

"We're investigating to see how we can accurately update his record,'' White spokesman Beth Kaufman said. Kaufman said she was legally prohibited from revealing whether Fairman's license had ever been suspended or revoked.

Fairman has been ticketed three times for drunken driving, but the 1993 charge was dismissed. In the 1994 DUI, he also was charged with punching a Glenview police officer. As of Wednesday, Cook County prosecutors said, the 1994 DUI conviction still wasn't on Fairman's record. They said they have asked White's office to correct the record by adding the conviction.

Fairman also has been convicted once for leaving the scene of an accident and a total of 17 times for speeding and expired license plates. He was ticketed for not having insurance last year, court records show, when he was driving an SUV with license plates "LR,'' the initials of his wife, Lynda Ryan Fairman.

In most cases, Fairman was found guilty, fined and often put on court supervision. Several tickets were dropped.

'I wouldn't have done it'

On Jan. 13, 1998, Chicago Police officer John Simon stopped Fairman for speeding on Lake Shore Drive near McCormick Place. Simon charged Fairman with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving 70 mph--25 over the speed limit--failure to have a driver's license and improper lane usage.

Eighteen months later--six months after his father became governor--Fairman pleaded guilty to the DUI and Cook County Circuit Court Judge Marcia Maras sentenced him to supervision.

Had she known about Fairman's prior DUI, Maras said this week, she would have been much tougher. Under a 1997 law pushed by Ryan, drunken drivers are allowed only a single sentence of supervision in a lifetime. The next time they're convicted of DUI, judges must revoke their licenses for at least a year.

"If I knew he had another supervision, I don't know how I would have given him a second knowing it was one per lifetime,'' Maras said. "I wouldn't have done it.''

It was the prosecutor's job to tell Maras about Fairman's earlier DUI. But the prosecutor didn't know about it either, because it wasn't on Fairman's record from the secretary of state's office, said Jerry Lawrence, spokesman for Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine.

"Why it wasn't in there, we don't know,'' Lawrence said. "It's not normal. We've already informed the secretary of state's office that it was missing.''

Ryan's spokesman, Dennis Culloton, said the governor was not even aware of his son-in-law's 1994 DUI conviction and has no idea why it was not on Fairman's record. But Culloton said Ryan's staff never removed it from Fairman's record.

"All I can say is the governor has never intervened on Mr. Fairman's behalf," Culloton said. "Obviously, the drunk driving issue has been important to the governor and the Ryan family. One of his daughters was injured by a drunk driver. This is always something he has taken very seriously. It's always a difficult thing in any family when someone runs into this kind of trouble, and you certainly wish it didn't happen. You're thankful no one got hurt. The family supports Michael and are trying to help him do better in the future.''

Fairman, 45, of Bolingbrook, could not be reached for comment. His wife told the Sun-Times that her husband didn't want to talk.

Michael Fairman's public driving record--the one that's available to his insurance company and the news media--lists only one violation, a traffic accident from 1999, said secretary of state spokeswoman Beth Kaufman. Other major infractions, including his 1998 DUI conviction, have been removed from this public record because Fairman paid the court-ordered fines and completed his supervision periods. But Kaufman said they remain on his permanent record that goes to prosecutors and judges.

As of Oct. 1, 2000, all supervisions for any traffic ticket must be reported to the secretary of state's office under a law White helped pass. Before that, supervisions only had to be reported for DUI, reckless driving, drag racing, leaving an accident involving injuries or death, and driving on a suspended or revoked license, Kaufman said.

A history of traffic tickets

Fairman, a salesman for an electrical supply company in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood, has been in and out of court for traffic violations since at least the early 1990s.

On Oct. 28, 1993, three months after his previous wife divorced him amid complaints of gambling and drinking, he was stopped for drunken driving in Chicago.

Fairman was charged with drunken driving, with a blood alcohol level of 0.1, improper passing and leaving the scene of an accident after he hit a car in the 2500 block of North Halsted. He was convicted of leaving the scene, fined $500 and placed on supervision for a year. The other charges were dropped after his lawyer convinced the judge that the police officer's Breathalyzer machine was broken.

While on supervision for that accident, Fairman was caught speeding in Des Plaines and Highland Park. In both cases, he was fined and placed on supervision. It is not uncommon for a driver to be on multiple supervisions at one time.

On Nov. 24, 1994, Fairman was still on supervision for the hit-and-run when he was stopped at 2 a.m. in Glenview for driving on the wrong side of the road with his lights off. He also was charged with drunken driving, improper lane usage, resisting arrest and hitting Glenview Police officer William Golden. A jury found Fairman guilty of drunken driving and resisting arrest.

Fairman was awaiting sentencing for that DUI conviction when, on the afternoon of May 8, 1995, he hit a car stopped at a red light in Morton Grove, causing a four-car accident. Morton Grove police ticketed him for failing to reduce his speed to avoid the accident. He got off when a witness didn't show.

Two weeks after that accident, Fairman was sentenced to one year of supervision for the Glenview DUI. This is the DUI conviction that is missing from Fairman's driving record with the secretary of state.

On Dec. 22, 1995, nine days before his marriage to Ryan's daughter, Fairman was stopped for speeding in Morton Grove. He was fined $50 and placed on supervision for six months. At that time, he already was on supervision for the Glenview DUI.

Over the next two years, Fairman picked up seven more speeding tickets, including one for driving 51 mph in 35 mph zone. He also was ticketed for expired license plates and failure to wear his seat belt. He was placed on supervision and fined for most of those tickets.

It was during this time that Ryan put Fairman on the payroll of his campaign fund, Citizens for Ryan, paying him $55,000 between July 1996 and August 1997. Culloton declined to say what work Fairman did for Ryan's campaign fund. "On matters dealing with the campaign, and the campaign payroll, I'm not going to discuss it," he said.

The fund has been indicted on racketeering charges stemming from the federal licenses-for-bribes investigation of the secretary of state's office under Ryan. The trial is set for Jan. 8. Fairman's wife and three of her sisters have been granted immunity.

Michael Fairman's next DUI came in 1998, when he was stopped by officer Simon for speeding on Lake Shore Drive. Simon, who now works for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said he could not recall the incident.

This third DUI charge came four days before a bankruptcy petition by Fairman was approved, wiping out debts of nearly $88,000. That included a $3,600 gambling loan from the Empress Casino in Joliet, where his wife worked, and a $3,400 gambling loan from the Hollywood Casino in Aurora. Lynda Ryan was not part of the bankruptcy.

Fairman's attorney in this DUI case was Sherwin Zaban, who is now a hearing officer for the Illinois Commerce Commission. Zaban, like Judge Maras and the prosecutor, said he was unaware that Fairman had a previous DUI conviction that made him ineligible for supervision. "I'm aware of what the law was," Zaban said. "From my standpoint, all I do is check the record. I saw nothing on his record."

While Fairman was on supervision for that DUI conviction, he got four more tickets. Lombard police charged him with driving on expired plates. Romeoville and Bolingbrook police charged him with speeding. And Schiller Park police charged him with failure to yield the right of way. Fairman was convicted in the Lombard, Romeoville and Bolingbrook cases, ordered to pay fines and given supervision.

Last year, Fairman got four more tickets. He was found guilty of three speeding violations, but he got supervision each time, so he didn't lose his license for getting three tickets in a year. The fourth ticket--for driving an uninsured vehicle--was dismissed.