From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Political scandal filled with sex, drugs

November 21, 2002

BY STEVE WARMBIR AND TIM NOVAK STAFF REPORTERS

How do you keep a right-hand man of Gov. Ryan happy?

Free pot, cheap hookers and free lodging in sunny Jamaica are a start, according to court documents filed Wednesday in the case of former George Ryan campaign manager Scott Fawell.

Federal prosecutors unleashed a barrage of new, allegedly corrupt deeds by Fawell they want to use in his corruption trial in January.

The feds allege Fawell steered a sweet state lease deal to Gov. Ryan's businessman friend, Harry Klein, in 1996.

And Klein provided free lodging to Fawell and his wife, Joan, from 1994 to 1998 at Klein's Jamaican vacation home.

Klein, who has testified before the grand jury, also gave Fawell and his wife free pot, the feds say.

Fawell tried to cover up that he was getting free lodging and he didn't report it on his statement of economic interest, prosecutors say.

While prosecutors make no mention of it, Gov. Ryan also has been a frequent guest at Klein's vacation home and does not mention it on his statement either. A Ryan spokesman did not return a message asking if Ryan had paid for the lodging.

The feds also added fresh details about the allegedly corrupt relationship between Fawell and his pal, former Republican lawmaker and mass mailing whiz Roger Stanley, dubbed "The Hog" for his reported greed for state contracts. Stanley is now cooperating with prosecutors.

Fawell got kickbacks for steering Stanley business while Fawell was helping run Ryan's political machine from 1995 to 1998, and the chicanery continued when Fawell took over the agency that runs Navy Pier and McCormick Place, prosecutors say.

Stanley allegedly got about 14 McPier contracts worth more than $170,000, partly by rigging bids.

Fawell also allegedly negotiated a deal with Stanley where Fawell would get a kickback for steering a multimillion-dollar engineering contract to an unnamed firm. Participating in the talks was Ryan's friend, Donald Udstuen, who is cooperating with the feds.

The scheme was killed when the players in the deal got cold feet because of the federal investigation.

In return for the McPier business, Stanley allegedly provided Fawell with free or subsidized trips to such spots as Lake Ontario and Costa Rica. And some of those trips included free hookers.

Fawell's prominent attorney, Edward Genson, is working to keep any mention of prostitutes out of the trial.

Genson argues in court papers filed Wednesday that the evidence is unclear on whether Fawell engaged prostitutes on the Costa Rican fishing trips. And if Fawell did, he either paid for the services himself--so it wasn't a gift--or the services were so cheap they were inconsequential.

In one instance, defense attorneys calculate Stanley paid one prostitute $500 for a five-day trip.

If Fawell "visited" with the woman for 20 minutes, as Stanley has told the feds, "the financial value of that encounter would have been less than $2," according to the defense filing.

The woman denied having sex with Fawell, which Stanley didn't believe, court records show.

Fawell took other, more expensive gifts, according to the feds.

In one instance, he allegedly got a free satellite dish installed at home from a man he met during one of the trips to Costa Rica. In return, the man got a vendor permit for a concession through McPier.

Fawell got another sweet deal on a Sea Ray 175 boat every year from a west suburban boat dealer whom Fawell helped on a road issue.

Fawell and his estranged wife, Joan, fought over the boat during their pending divorce, with Joan getting the boat for the Labor Day weekend.

In another court filing, Fawell's defense wants the statements of people they believe the feds have interviewed as part of the case.

The defense list includes Bob Newtson, Ryan's chief of staff; Mike Stokke, a former chief of staff to then-House Speaker Lee Daniels and now deputy chief of staff to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Len Sherman, the former head of the Illinois Professional Regulation Department.