from the Sun-Times: 
 
Fawell drops attitude, gives details about Ryan 
 
October 4, 2005 
 
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter 
 
 Former Gov. George Ryan's onetime right-hand man wiped the smirk off his face, dropped the wisecracks and more directly spilled on his old boss the second day on the witness stand Monday. 
 
 Scott Fawell, Ryan's former chief of staff and political strategist, talked about everything from taking a private plane to Orlando for a Chicago Bulls game with Ryan and others, to Ryan's penchant for gambling, to Ryan allegedly knowing about the use of political workers on the state's dime. 
 
 Fawell still seemed somewhat uneasy testifying Monday, but he appeared more serious, in contrast to the cockiness he displayed Thursday when he first took the stand in Ryan's corruption trial. 
 
 Fawell's attorney, Jeffrey Steinback, explained that last week Fawell decided to "infuse his personality" in part because of extreme anxiety he felt while testifying against two men he still considers friends. Steinback said Fawell decided over the weekend to "behave himself." 
 
 "That was Scott being Scott. I think he evaluated what happened last week and decided he should change his behavior," Steinback said. "He did that on his own. It's not like I made him do anything [different] or the government did." 
 
 Fawell, who is serving a 61/2-year sentence on a public corruption conviction, is testifying against Ryan in the hope his cooperation will keep Andrea Coutretsis, his fiancee and former aide, out of prison. Coutretsis pleaded guilty to mail fraud and perjury charges in a related case. 
 
 Ryan is on trial with lobbyist Lawrence Warner on charges that Ryan steered state contracts to friends such as Warner and in return accepted benefits. Ryan and Warner deny the charges. 
 
Cash gifts 
 
 While Ryan's lawyer described him as leading a humble life, prosecutors, through Fawell, painted him as someone who frequently gambled, often had cash in his pocket and used his connections and rich friends to jet across the country for a Bulls game. 
 
 Fawell said he once gave Ryan political advice when he was Illinois' secretary of state after seeing a picture of Ryan gambling in an Illinois riverboat casino. 
 
 "If the gubernatorial thing becomes a reality and you want to gamble I suggest you go to Vegas," Fawell said he told Ryan. 
 
 Fawell said Ryan was a big tipper who passed out cash tips from $5 to $50. He said he saw Ryan on numerous occasions give two of his daughters cash gifts when they visited him in Springfield. Prosecutors have said that in the time Ryan was secretary of state and governor he carried large wads of cash, yet never used an ATM and withdrew just $6,700 from his bank accounts during those many years. 
 
 Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins, Fawell described how he and Ryan took a trip to Orlando for a Bulls game. A private plane taking off from Chicago stopped in Springfield to pick up Fawell and Ryan. The group -- including Warner -- went to Disney World, cleaned up in a hotel suite, then headed to a Bulls playoff game. 
 
 Ryan attorney Dan Webb and one of Warner's lawyers, Marvin Bloom, vigorously objected to showing jurors a photo of what Fawell described as "six grown men at Disney World," saying it served only to burn a negative image into the jurors' minds. 
 
 The smiling faces in front of Cinderella's castle included Ryan, Warner, Fawell, Bulls executive Joe O'Neil, Republican Party official Manny Hoffman and insurance magnate Richard Parillo. 
 
 The defense fought against raising the Orlando trip at all, arguing that prosecutors couldn't show who actually paid for the trip. But U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer allowed it, saying there was no evidence Ryan paid for the trip himself, and noting that if someone else financed it, Ryan didn't disclose it on his economic interest forms. 
 
'Everybody was happy' 
 
 Fawell also said Ryan knew of a "master list" that tracked political favors from the secretary of state's office. He gave an example that Ryan once asked for the pages pertaining to former state Senate leader James "Pate" Philip (R-Wood Dale.) 
 
 Fawell also discussed how he and Ryan tried making their friends happy while awarding state contracts. 
 
 That included the decision to award a $25 million digital-imaging contract for the secretary of state's office. While Warner represented Viisage Technology as a lobbyist, Fawell said the wife of his friend Al Ronan represented competitor Unisys. Fawell said he tried to bring about ''a marriage between Viisage and Unisys.'' 
 
 ''That way, everybody was happy." 
 
 Viisage ultimately got the deal.