From the Associated Press

Judge wants evidence before giving Fawell's fiancee a break
10/14/2004

By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer
October 14, 2004, 4:48 PM CDT
A federal judge preparing to sentence the fiancee of former Gov. George Ryan's top aide for perjury said Thursday that before he gives her the break being urged by prosecutors he wants to see some evidence that she deserves it.
"It seems to me that there has to be some evidence in light of the uniqueness of the circumstances,'' U.S. District Judge James F. Holderman said.
Prosecutors say Andrea Coutretsis, 35, persuaded her fiance, Scott Fawell, to become a key government witness who is now expected to testify if the racketeering charge against Ryan and his lobbyist friend Larry Warner goes to trial.
Fawell, 47, Ryan's right-hand man throughout his decade-long climb to the governor's office, is serving a 61/2-year racketeering sentence at a South Dakota prison. He agreed to help prosecutors if they recommended a lighter sentence for Coutretsis.
Prosecutors say Coutretsis deserves credit for persuading Fawell to give them information not only about Ryan but information that could help in as many as five other investigations.
Holderman, however, said he wants more than assurances from lawyers before he gives Coutretsis a lighter sentence in return for bringing about Fawell's change of heart. Under her perjury plea agreement, she was to be sentenced to a year in prison.
The case involves a complex web of charges and deals -- all part of the government's six-year Operation Safe Road investigation that began with the discovery of bribes paid in return for drivers licenses and has since become a broad political corruption probe.
Fawell was convicted in March 2003 of using state employees and taxpayer dollars to run Ryan's campaigns as far back as the early 1990s. He was sentenced to 61/2 years.
Coutretsis, his longtime assistant, pleaded guilty in December to perjury for lying to a federal grand jury about corruption in the secretary of state's office under Ryan.
In February, Fawell, Coutretsis and others were indicted in a bid-rigging scheme at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority where Ryan had appointed Fawell as the $199,000-a-year chief executive. Coutretsis pleaded guilty to mail fraud in that case.
Under her agreements with federal prosecutors, Coutretsis was to go to prison for 12 months on the perjury charge and 12 to 18 months for mail fraud if courts approved.
Prosecutors now want Holderman to tear up the old agreement on the perjury plea and approve a deal under which Coutretsis would get a maximum of a year and a day on the perjury charge and prosecutors would recommend she be given only six months. Coutretsis would be free to ask Holderman for even less time.
Federal prosecutors also are asking U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning to sentence Coutretsis to a concurrent term in the mail fraud case.
It was Fawell who pressed prosecutors to give Coutretsis a break as part of his agreement to plead guilty in the McPier case. Fawell has also written a letter to Holderman, urging him to be lenient with Coutretsis, the judge said.
Copyright (c) 2004, The Associated Press