From the Chicago Tribune
Two plead guilty in Hired Truck probe
By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 1, 2005, 8:45 PM CDT
As part of the federal Hired Truck probe, a truck driver who formerly worked
on a city asphalt crew pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of mail fraud for
pocketing payoffs to deliver city-owned asphalt to private paving projects.
Donald Warren, 58, of Robbins who said he formerly worked for BBD Trucking Co.,
faces up to 18 months in prison when he is sentenced.
In a separate courtroom Wednesday, another Hired Truck defendant, Commelie Peters
of Chicago, who operated a trucking company, pleaded guilty to a perjury charge
for concealing in a grand jury appearance her payoffs to city employees to obtain
city work.
The two guilty pleas bring to 11 the number of defendants convicted so far in
the Hired Truck probe of payoffs in city outsourcing of truck hauling to private
contractors. The investigation continues, but 27 individuals have been charged,
14 of them former city employees.
Warren pleaded guilty without a plea agreement with prosecutors, according to
Assistant U.S. Atty. Manish Shah.
Warren admitted that in 2004 while assigned to a city crew then led by foreman
Robert Laino, he delivered at least 17 truckloads of city-owned asphalt to private
paving projects, including at a West Side church and in Bensenville.
Laino is scheduled to plead guilty as soon as next week, according to court
records.
Prosecutors have alleged that a combined 380 tons of asphalt were stolen in
the scheme last year, following massive publicity about the Hired Truck scandal.
Warren acknowledged that he typically was paid $50 for each truckload of asphalt
he delivered to the private projects. According to his lawyer, Susan Cox, Warren
pocketed less than $1,000 in the scheme. The loss to the city totaled a little
more than $10,000, she said.
Paperwork was falsified to make it appear Warren had put in a full day's work
for the city on days he delivered the asphalt to the private work sites, he
admitted.
U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo scheduled Warren's sentencing for Aug. 31.
Peters admitted lying in a grand jury appearance last September to cover up
bribe payments of up to $2,500 a month that she and her father made to a bagman
for Donald Tomczak, then the No. 2 official in the city's Water Department.
In return, the Peterses' trucking business, LR&C Truck Line, averaged more
than $550,000 in Hired Truck work for each year from 1997 through 2003, according
to her plea agreement.
Tomczak's lawyer, Patrick Tuite, has said that he is negotiating a possible
plea agreement with prosecutors. Peters' father, Leroy, has pleaded not guilty.
With her guilty plea, Commelie Peters faces less than 2 years in prison. U.S.
District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan set sentencing for Sept. 8.
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mo'connor@tribune.com