From the Peoria Journal Star:

Ryan judge may limit details of deadly crash
Highway tragedy haunts former Illinois governor's racketeering case
Saturday, October 22, 2005
By Mike Ramsey
of Copley News Service
CHICAGO - The parents of six children killed in a fiery 1994 highway
accident that spawned the "licenses-for-bribes" investigation were in
federal court Friday as a judge considered whether to allow
information about the crash into ex-Gov. George Ryan's corruption
trial.
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer indicated she would let
prosecutors introduce evidence that Ryan-appointed inspector Dean
Bauer quashed an internal investigation into the accident when Ryan
was secretary of state.
But Pallmeyer stressed she did not want jurors to hear "gruesome"
details about how the children of Duane and Janet Willis died because
it could prejudice them against Ryan. She withheld a final ruling.
The Willis children were killed in an explosion on a Milwaukee-area
expressway in November 1994. It was caused when a truck part fell onto
the road and struck the van in which they were riding. The truck's
driver, Ricardo Guzman, had been fraudulently licensed in Illinois
during the time some secretary of state employees were selling
commercial drivers licenses to raise money for Ryan's campaign fund.
Counter testimony
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins said the prosecution needs to
counter testimony this week from former Ryan chief of staff Scott
Fawell, who said under cross-examination he was not aware of
cover-ups. Collins said he would narrow his references to the Willis
crash but added prosecutors "certainly intend to show the tangible
results of corruption - it's not just politics."
Ryan attorney Dan Webb, who finished questioning Fawell this week,
chided prosecutors for being dissatisfied with their own witness. He
said attempts to broaden testimony in the trial are the "ultimate act
of desperation by the prosecution as it's trying to rescue a
disappearing case."
Attorneys for Ryan's co-defendant, lobbyist Larry Warner of Chicago,
complained that the highly publicized crash has nothing to do with
their client. Warner, 67, is accused of steering contracts in the
secretary of state's office with Ryan's approval during the Kankakee
Republican's 1991-1999 tenure.
"There is no way to sanitize this evidence," Warner lawyer Marc Martin said.
Prosecutors allege that Ryan, who was governor from 1999 to 2003,
approved efforts by Fawell to squelch corruption investigations in the
secretary of state's office, but it is a relatively small section of
the case against him. Besides racketeering conspiracy, Ryan is charged
with mail and tax fraud, filing false tax forms and lying to federal
agents.
Second-row seats
Duane and Janet Willis observed Friday's arguments - held during a day
off in the ongoing Ryan trial - from a second-row bench in Pallmeyer's
courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Building. Duane Willis briefly spoke
to reporters, saying he and his wife returned to the Chicago area for
a 40th high-school reunion and decided to attend the hearing. They
survived the Wisconsin crash that killed six of their nine children.
"For most people, this is about documents and contracts," he said of
the Ryan case. "For us, it's about people - not just our family, but
families in the future."
The accident prompted the "Operation Safe Road" investigation into
license selling in the Ryan-era secretary of state's office. The
widening probe has yielded dozens of convictions and eventually
ensnared Bauer; Fawell, who was convicted of racketeering in 2003; and
the former governor.
New evidence?
Also Friday, Pallmeyer said prosecutors might introduce evidence that
Ryan in 1994 temporarily hid hundreds of thousands of dollars in
campaign funds from Fawell, his trusted political adviser. But the
judge held off on whether to allow testimony that Ryan briefly hired
two cronies so that their state pensions would be increased.
Prosecutors say Webb, Ryan's attorney, "opened the door" to the issues
during his cross-examination of Fawell.
The imprisoned Fawell, who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as
part of a plea arrangement in other cases, has characterized Ryan in
largely favorable terms for jurors, under questioning from Webb.
The trial, which began Sept. 28, resumes Monday and is expected to
last several more weeks.