From the Chicago Tribune

Man sentenced in licenses-for-bribes case

By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 5, 2004
An Illinois secretary of state employee who reportedly got his job because his mother is a local elected official was sentenced today to four months in a federal penitentiary for taking bribes to reinstate motorists' suspended drivers' licenses.
John H. McGowan Jr. of Chicago also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, the first four months on electronic home monitoring. McGowan is free on bond and must surrender Jan. 3 to begin serving his prison term.
"I would just like to apologize to my family, especially to my mom," McGowan told the court. Secretary of State Jesse White previously said McGowan had been hired because his mother, Barbara McGowan, is a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioner.
"Mr. McGowan, you made a very serious mistake. Your conduct was brazen and criminal," U.S. District Judge John Darrah told the defendant during this morning's sentencing hearing.
Defense attorney John Armellino Jr. argued for home confinement by noting his client was raising a six-year-old child by himself. John McGowan could have gotten up to 14 months in prison.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins argued for prison time, saying the defendant's misconduct came in wake of the well-publicized Operation Safe Road probe into corruption in state government.
For the man to have still tried squeezing license applicants for bribes, despite federal investigators' focus on the secretary of state's office, demonstrated "a fair amount of brazenness," the prosecutor said.
John McGowan had acted as if he had someone helping him in Springfield, but Collins said that as best the government could determine, the defendant had acted alone.
The former executive assistant in the secretary of state office at 160 N. LaSalle St. in the Loop pleaded guilty April 8 to attempted extortion.
The defendant admitted he accepted $100 from one motorist and attempted to pocket a combined $1,500 from four other drivers. He also took $700 from a federal agent posing as a motorist with a revoked driver's license.
In many of the cases, the motorists could have renewed their licenses for free or a nominal fee, authorities said.
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