From the Chicago Tribune

Ryan's racketeering trial set for March 2005

By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer
Published January 16, 2004
Former Gov. George Ryan's trial on federal racketeering charges was scheduled Friday for March 2005, but the judge said she didn't like the long delay.
"If we could get it started this fall, that would be my preference," U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer told lawyers for Ryan and his co-defendant, lobbyist Larry Warner. "For a lot of reasons, I think earlier is better than later."
Ryan defense attorney Dan K. Webb had asked the court for 14 months to prepare the complex case. Warner's lawyer, Edward M. Genson, wanted to go to trial immediately.
Giving Genson what he wanted would have meant holding two trials, Pallmeyer said. She said in a written ruling Thursday night that there would be one.
Ryan, 69, is accused among other things of illegally steering state contracts and leases when he was secretary of state to clients of Warner's. Both men have pleaded innocent.
The charges stem from the government's six-year Operation Safe Road investigation of corruption when Ryan was secretary of state and later governor. Tarnished by the ongoing scandal, the Republican left office in 2001 after one term.
One reason for the disagreement over when to hold the trial is that Warner was indicted 17 months ago. That indictment described Ryan only as Public Official A.
A federal grand jury returned a fresh indictment against both men in December, naming Ryan as Public Official A. The former governor has been under indictment for less than a month, while racketeering charges against Warner have been pending for well over a year.
"He has been under this cloud for a long time," Pallmeyer said.
Pallmeyer told another Warner attorney, Marc Martin, that she would not try to interfere if he wanted to appeal her decision not to go ahead with a scheduled Feb. 23 trial date for his client.
Martin said the defense is considering a motion to drop the charges based on the federal Speedy Trial Act. It requires defendants to get a trial within 70 days of indictment if they demand it. Warner waived his rights under the act once last year to give Genson time to undergo surgery and still conduct the defense.
Complicating the matter further is a major tobacco-industry trial in Washington scheduled for this fall in which Webb is one of the attorneys.
Webb said he would need 14 months to prepare for the Ryan case even without the tobacco trial. But Pallmeyer indicated if the tobacco case is settled she might move up Ryan's trial.
Webb also said he might make his own motion to have his client tried separately from Warner, saying he was not certain that the cases against the two men were "properly joined." But Pallmeyer said in response to a question from Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick M. Collins that she was not expecting to rule on the issue of two trials in the future.
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