From the Chicago Tribune

Skeletons in Sheahan fund ; Records show $80,000 in questionable campaign
donations
Todd Lighty and Mickey Ciokajlo, Tribune staff reporters
Dec 21, 2003

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION.
Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan's campaign committee has failed to
disclose thousands of dollars in donations and has hidden contributions made
by employees that the sheriff pledged not to accept, according to a Tribune
analysis of internal campaign records.
Citizens for Michael F. Sheahan also has accepted anonymous donations, such
as $125 money orders bearing the names of Al Capone and Dr. Jack Kevorkian,
and at times recorded contributions from deputies in the names of their
ex-wives, records show.
One campaign memo even recommended that a deputy "give in another name ...
if possible."
Failing to report donations, accepting anonymous donations and making
donations in the name of another person are all violations of Illinois
campaign finance law governing public disclosure of political donations.
In an interview Friday, Sheahan said he had nothing to do with fundraising
and entrusted the bulk of the bookkeeping to his former secretary. He said
his campaign did not hide donations made by employees.
Sheahan said his pledge not to accept campaign contributions from employees
only meant his 6,500 workers would never be forced to make contributions.
Many, he said, have given on their own "free will."
"In many cases, some employees wanted to give to my campaign," Sheahan said.
"They believed in what we were doing. We were cleaning up a terrible office.
And they came to fundraisers, but there was no coercion."
The sheriff's internal campaign records obtained by the Tribune offer a rare
glimpse inside the sophisticated fundraising arm of one of Cook County's
most popular and powerful politicians. The records also revealed the
extraordinary steps that were taken to hide many contributions made by the
sheriff's employees.
An examination of the checks and money orders shows that more than $50,000
in donations were never disclosed and are unaccounted for.
In addition, Citizens for Michael F. Sheahan accepted more than $10,000 in
anonymous donations in the form of money orders, cashier checks and cash,
and recorded nearly $20,000 in donations from employees in the names of
someone else, the records show.
Altogether, there was at least $80,000 in donations from anonymous donors,
from employees that were masked in the names of others, or from sources that
were not recorded, records show. During the period in question, Sheahan
raised more than $2.5 million.
The records, from 1990 through 1998, consisted of more than 5,000 pages of
campaign memos, copies of bank-deposit slips, money orders and business and
personal checks made out to Sheahan's political committee in amounts ranging
from $10 to more than $15,000.
The documents did not include the off-election year of 1993 or the years
from 1999 through the present.
Ran as a reformer
Sheahan, a former Chicago police officer and Democratic alderman from
Chicago's 19th Ward, was re-elected in a landslide last year to a fourth
term as sheriff. He said he has made the department more professional and
cleaned up political corruption.
When he first ran for sheriff in 1990, Sheahan accused Republican Sheriff
James O'Grady of pressuring employees to contribute to his campaign.
"The sheriff's office is not a political party headquarters or the
fundraising arm of a political organization," Sheahan said.
That August, 15 sheriff's employees joined Sheahan at a news conference at
the Bismarck Hotel and complained about the O'Grady administration's
fundraising tactics.
"Their morale is hurt," Sheahan said at the news conference. "They want to
work hard. They don't want to buy tickets."
Sheahan pledged not to accept donations from the department's employees and
restated that promise Dec. 3, 1990, when he was sworn as Cook County's 50th
sheriff.
But the campaign records show Sheahan's pledge was broken just months after
he took office.
Employee Joseph Abruzzo gave $500 in May 1991 for a Sheahan cocktail
reception, but it was reported in the name of his wife, records show.
Employee Dolores Roche gave $250 in October 1991, but the donation showed up
in the name of her husband.
Sheahan also issued an executive order the day he took office that barred
employees from "soliciting political contributions of any kind, either while
on or off-duty status."
That, pledge, too, appears to have been broken.
A 1998 memo, titled "Alphabetical Tickets," listed the names of 75
people--most of them sheriff's employees. Typed next to each name was a
number ranging from 1 to 47, appearing to represent the number of tickets
sold by each person.
Beside the name of one person on the list was a note that she also "helped
recruit 3 sellers who sold 25" tickets.
The last page of the memo was a tally for the fundraiser and carried several
notations, including, "Still waiting for ticket money for 2 tickets" and
"Still waiting for 26 tix not sold but yet to be returned."
The memo also noted these "sensational sellers" had sold a total of 685
tickets.
Sheahan's campaign lawyer, Burton Odelson, said the memo was not an
accounting of "sensational sellers." Rather, he said, it merely estimated
the number of guests each person had expected to bring to the fundraiser.
A review of the memo showed the estimated number of guests matches the
number of tickets sold.
Since 2002, two current employees have alleged political abuses permeate the
sheriff's department and filed separate federal lawsuits. The sheriff has
denied the allegations.
Denis Micnerski, a veteran correctional officer, alleged in October 2002
that he was demoted after he initially balked at buying a $500 Sheahan
fundraising ticket from a supervisor.
In a similar lawsuit filed in June, Gayler Cobbs, an 18-year veteran of the
department, alleged she was demoted after refusing to buy or sell
fundraising tickets.
Cobbs was assistant director of operations at the sheriff's boot camp when
she alleges a boss handed her tickets at work to a 2001 fundraiser and
instructed her to sell them. Cobbs recalled telling her boss that she
doesn't sell tickets.
Later that year, another supervisor approached Cobbs about buying four
tickets to Sheahan's annual golf outing.
"He had the tickets in his shirt pocket," Cobbs said. "I told him I don't
play golf. He asked, `Where's your loyalty?'"
`Give in another name'
An analysis of the internal campaign records covering three campaigns shows
that Citizens for Michael F. Sheahan repeatedly disguised who actually made
the donations.
According to an internal campaign memo, Sheahan's staff may have encouraged
a sheriff's deputy to give in the name of someone else.
During Sheahan's first re-election campaign in 1994, Deputy Dino Di Paolo
wrote a check to his boss' committee in the amount of $250.
But Elizabeth "Betty" Ryan, Sheahan's primary bookkeeper for his political
committee, flagged Di Paolo's donation. Because the check was for more than
$150, under state finance laws the committee was required to publicly report
the donation on Sheahan's financial disclosure forms.
Ryan brought the donation to the attention of James McGing, a top aide to
the sheriff and his campaign manager at the time.
"Do you know this person?" Ryan asked in the typed memo. "He is an employee
and will have to show on the disclosure statement--I cannot accept this
check. Try to have him give in another name or money order if possible."
A copy of Di Paolo's check of Aug. 6, 1994, appeared with Ryan's memo.
A little over a month later, a check in the amount of $250 was given to the
committee--this one from Anthony F. Di Paolo, Dino's father. The check was
for five tickets to a fundraiser and was made out to "Citizens for Sheann,"
misspelling the sheriff's name.
It was the first time Anthony Di Paolo had ever contributed to the sheriff.
A handwritten notation was made on the campaign memo: "Replaced w/check from
Anthony F Di Paolo 9/15/94."
Dino Di Paolo, a sheriff's deputy since 1989, said he did not recall the
committee refusing his donation. He said no one in Sheahan's campaign
instructed him to have someone, such as his father, make the donation
instead.
"If he did it, he did it on his own," Dino said of his father's donation.
Anthony Di Paolo, a retired Chicago Park District worker, said, "I still
give. Dino doesn't tell me to give."
Indeed, Anthony Di Paolo has written at least seven checks since then to
Sheahan's campaign committee, totaling $2,125.
McGing said he did not recall ever seeing the memo until this past week.
Ryan, whom Sheahan inherited as a secretary from Jeremiah Joyce, his
predecessor as 19th Ward alderman, said she wrote the memo. But she was not
certain whether McGing ever saw it.
Since 1990, the Illinois State Board of Elections has required political
committees to file two types of key financial disclosure reports,
pre-election and semi-annual reports that list individual campaign
expenditures and contributions.
Campaign finance law requires every political committee have a treasurer
responsible for keeping detailed records that will, in part, back up
information shown on the public campaign reports.
Even though Sheahan's financial reports carry the signature of his long-time
treasurer, Thomas Carroll, Ryan actually functioned as the treasurer, said
Odelson, the committee's lawyer.
Ryan arranged Sheahan's fundraisers, collected money, photocopied campaign
checks and recorded the information on the financial disclosure forms.
Carroll basically did the arithmetic, tallying the expenditures and
contributions on the disclosure forms, Odelson said.
Carroll declined to be interviewed.
Under campaign law, political committees must report all donations to a
candidate that total more than $150 during a six- month period, disclosing
the name of the person making the donation, the person's address and the
date and amount of the contribution.
Sheahan's committee, however, repeatedly recorded donations from sheriff's
employees in the names of others, such as a spouse, a child and, on at least
four occasions, the name of an ex-wife, records show.
Daniel McCarthy, an official in the court services division, made two
donations in 1997. In May, he wrote a personal check to "Citizens for
Sheahan" for $1,250 and in July, a $500 check for "Sheriff Sheahan's Golf
Outing."
But the committee's publicly filed disclosure reports show the checks were
not recorded in the name of Daniel McCarthy. Instead, the donations were
recorded as having been made by Maria McCarthy on Ascot in Park Ridge, even
though she did not live at that address and her name was not on either
check.
"I have not been Maria McCarthy since 1990," said Maria Lesko, Daniel
McCarthy's former wife. "Checks are written out by my ex- husband and they
show up in my name?"
Daniel McCarthy said he did not know why his donations were recorded as
coming from Maria McCarthy. "I haven't been married to her for 15 years," he
said.
In the case of one high-ranking sheriff's official, Carmelita Wagner,
donations sometimes were recorded in the name of a child.
Wagner also was a secretary to Sheahan when he was an alderman, and she
followed him to the sheriff's office in 1990. She is now his executive
director for the training institute and is paid $115,500 a year.
Wagner signed four checks totaling $2,100, one payable to "Citizens for
Sheahan" and the others payable to "Sheriff Sheahan's Golf Outing."
She was the only name on the account and signed all four checks, yet the
donations were reported as having been made by her daughter, Alisha. Wagner
did not return numerous messages left at her office and her daughter could
not be reached for comment.
A more common practice was to report contributions made by employees in the
name of an employees' spouse, even when the donations were made through
money orders or single checking accounts.
McGing, who is now Sheahan's acting director of operations at the County
Jail, wrote three checks in 1997 and 1998 that totaled $2,750. The checks
carried only McGing's name and the address of his law office, which at the
time was at 2 N. LaSalle St.
Still, the donations were recorded as having been made by McGing's wife,
Breda. McGing said the checks came from a personal account, but he did not
know why the contributions were reported in his wife's name.
Betty Ryan said she was not trying to intentionally disguise donations.
With most contributions, Ryan said, donors are asked to supply their name,
amount of donation and address on "reply cards." She said she took the name
appearing on the reply card--and not the name on the check or money
order--when she transferred the information to disclosure forms.
Ryan said the campaign no longer has the reply cards.
Capone and Kevorkian
Under state election guidelines, political committees can not accept
anonymous contributions because it violates the essence of disclosing who
made the donation.
Sheahan's political committee accepted at least 50 donations mostly in the
form of money orders and cashiers checks with no name or address, according
to an examination of his campaign records. Those donations totaled more than
$10,000.
Occasionally, the remitter line was filled in but carried non- identifying
phrases. That was the case involving a $1,000 Citibank money order to the
committee dated Dec. 23, 1997. It was signed: "19th Ward Resident."
In other instances, the names on the money orders did not appear to be
genuine.
In four instances, the remitter line carried the name of Chicago gangsters:
Two donations from mob boss Al Capone; and one each from Capone's
lieutenant, Frank Nitti; and Capone's rival, Bugsy Moran, records show. The
address for each mobster was listed as 118 N. Clark St., the County
Building.
In another instance, the committee accepted a $250 money order from "Rott N.
Weiler."
The committee also accepted four $125 international money orders- -all from
Travelers Express and all dated Sept. 4, 1994--that supposedly came from
assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, cosmetics queen Mary Kay, Lisa
Presley Jackson and Ted Kennedy, records show.
"It's not him," said David Smith, a spokesman for Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy
(D-Mass.). "If he makes a donation, it's from his personal checking account;
not from money orders."
Board of Election officials, while not speaking specifically about Sheahan's
committee, said fictitious names on money orders are considered anonymous
contributions because the true donor's identity is concealed.
State law requires political committees to turn over anonymous donations to
the state treasurer's office for deposit in the general revenue fund.
That has happened only five times since 1994 and none came from Citizens for
Michael F. Sheahan, said Carolyn Barry, spokeswoman for the state
treasurer's office.
Campaign disclosure in Illinois is largely a system built on trust, with the
Board of Elections relying on committees to truthfully disclose how they
raise and report donations. The board does not audit committees' internal
records--such as examining campaign memos, bank deposit slips, checks and
money orders.
The board focuses on ensuring that the state's more than 3,300 political
committees timely file their disclosure reports that contain a name,
address, date and amount for each donation.
Ryan acknowledged that Citizens for Michael F. Sheahan accepted anonymous
donations in the form of money orders, cashiers checks and cash. She said
crowds of donors would flood into campaign fundraisers and make cash
contributions without filling out the reply cards.
"Sometimes they would put down Mickey Mouse or Superman. There was no way of
keeping track of them," Ryan said. "There was no way I could figure out who
it was."
Unreported donations
In another apparent violation of campaign finance law, the committee on
numerous occasions accepted donations and failed to disclose them, records
show.
The Tribune compared copies of personal checks and money orders made out to
Citizens for Michael F. Sheahan to what the committee disclosed on Sheahan's
campaign finance reports.
At least 120 times, donations of more than $150 were unaccounted for in the
records filed with the state. Those unreported donations totaled more than
$52,000.
While not all of the donations can be traced directly to workers within the
sheriff's department, many of the contributions came from high-ranking
employees or their relatives.
In 1994, during Sheahan's first bid for re-election, the committee did not
report at least 20 donations
For instance, during Sheahan's primary fight against former FBI agent Tommy
Brewer, the committee in one week accepted $4,800 in contributions from
employees or their relatives and did not report the money to the
state--including a $1,000 money order from Alisha Wagner. That summer, her
mother, Carmelita, donated $1,000 by money order that also was not reported.
Four years later, when Sheahan had no primary opponent and a weak Republican
challenger in the general election, the number of unreported donations
totaled at least 75.
Among them were another $1,250 check from Carmelita Wagner and a $2,500
check from the joint account of Terrence and Maureen Lanigan. Terrence
Lanigan is a $112,000-a-year aide to the sheriff and was Sheahan's partner
on the Chicago police force.
Ryan said she never hid donations. But she acknowledged she had failed to
disclose some contributions, calling her actions honest, unintentional
mistakes.
"I have no explanation. Absolutely no explanation," Ryan said for why
thousands of dollars in donations were not reported. "It was pure negligence
on my part."
More gray areas
Many other contributions seem to violate the spirit of Sheahan's pledge and
fall into gray areas of campaign practice.
At least $165,000 in contributions can be tied to sheriff's employees
through companies they own, through donations in the name of a "family," and
through their spouses.
Frequently, the committee listed donations drawn on joint checking accounts
of employees and their spouses in the name of the spouse only, even if the
employee filled out the check and signed it.
Around the Democratic primary in 1994, seven donations drawn on joint
checking accounts were accepted by Sheahan's political committee. A
sheriff's employee had signed each of the checks.
Yet, when the committee recorded the donations for public viewing, they were
listed solely in the names of the employees' spouses.
Deputy Clark Emmart gave $250 on Feb. 15, 1994, from a joint checking
account he shared with his wife, Mary Kay. It was recorded as coming from
Mary Kay Emmart. There was no mention of Clark.
"I am not a politically involved person," said Mary Kay Konchar, who has
since divorced. "If he made contributions at the time, that was his
dealing."
Sally Hunt, who uses her maiden name Daly as the sheriff's $111,700-a-year
press secretary, shares a joint checking account with her husband, Patrick.
When Sally Hunt signed checks to the sheriff's campaign committee in August
1996 and July 1997, the committee recorded the donations in the name of her
husband.
But when her husband signed at least 11 checks between May 1991 and
September 1998 from their joint bank account that totaled $7,500, the
committee listed the donations in the name of Patrick, only.
Patrick Hunt said that perhaps he had delivered the two donations signed by
his wife to the committee, which then recorded them in his name.
"I have nothing to do with the reporting," Patrick Hunt said. "In general,
I'm the one making the contributions."
Another accounting practice that disguises the exact identity of the donor
is to list the contribution as being made by the employee's "family." This
happened at least 70 times and totaled nearly $20,000 in donations.
When employee Doyle Carr donated $400 in June 1996 and another $1,000 in
1997, both donations were recorded as having been made by the "Carr Family."
Carr declined to comment.
Citizens for Sheahan also accepted tens of thousands of dollars in
contributions from sources that could not be easily recognized: companies
run by or associated with his employees.
Between July 1993 and October 2001, Noodles of China made 21 donations that
totaled $8,600, according to the disclosure records filed with the state.
At that time, according to secretary of state records, an officer with
Noodles of China Inc.--which made noodles, egg-roll skins and fortune
cookies--was Cameron W. Pon. A 1993 newspaper story said Pon had taken over
the business after his father died in 1986.
Pon, according to county payroll records, has been a police officer in the
sheriff's department since 1992. He declined to comment.
Odelson, the campaign's lawyer, said he has worked with a number of
politicians and campaign committees over the years, sometimes defending them
in hearings before the Board of Elections.
"This is one of the cleanest and well-managed campaigns that I have ever
been involved with," he said.
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