Defense emphasizes deals witnesses made

By MIKE RAMSEY
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

CHICAGO - Federal witnesses have testified against Scott Fawell in exchange for lenient treatment from the government, Fawell's lead defense attorney emphasized Monday.

"When they got caught, it was 'Let's Make a Deal' time, and they blamed Scott," Ed Genson said during a 41/2-hour closing argument in Fawell's racketeering trial, which entered its eighth week.

Fawell, former Gov. George Ryan's top aide in the secretary of state's office, allegedly diverted public employees and resources to get his boss and other Republicans elected in the 1990s. A nine-count indictment also accuses Fawell of fixing contracts, tax evasion and obstruction of justice and names Ryan's campaign organization, Citizens for George Ryan, as a co-defendant.

Fawell, 45, looked directly at jurors as Genson criticized the government's case as "smoke and mirrors" and too dependent on testimony from Fawell underlings seeking to save themselves.

Fawell aide Richard Juliano, the government's leadoff witness, pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud and awaits sentencing but "is not the gopher he pretends to be," Genson said.

Juliano admitted forging a letter of recommendation purportedly from Ryan to get into law school and received ghost-payroll contracts for which he did no work.

"The fact is, he's a liar," Genson said.

Similarly, admitted bribe-taker Larry Hall shouldn't be trusted when he says Fawell authorized him to sell low-digit license plates for campaign contributions, Genson said. Hall received probation after pleading guilty to mail fraud.

Several witnesses, such as former Ryan scheduler William Mack, were granted letters of immunity after the feds decided not to charge them with wrongdoing.

Mack admitted that he organized the shredding of campaign documents at Ryan's Chicago offices in September 1998 to keep them from the feds.

He claimed Ryan was present at a meeting when Fawell ordered the clean-up, but Genson had another idea: Mack fabricated the Ryan anecdote to make prosecutors happy.

Likewise, he said, political operative Brad Roseberry placed Ryan at a 1992 meeting in which Fawell approved campaign work on state time.

"They're in trouble, they're scared, and all of a sudden, they remember some meeting where George Ryan was there, they remember some meeting where Scott Fawell was there," Genson said.

Just as telling as the immunized witnesses, Genson argued, are several figures central to the conspiracy case who were mentioned in testimony but never took the stand. Among them were Ryan and Robert Newtson, who became Ryan's chief of staff in the governor's office.

"We are talking about ghosts - people who you never get to see, people you hear about through other people," Genson said.

The attorney didn't try to dismiss everything in the government's case. He called a brief, pension-boosting job for Ryan crony Roger "The Hog" Stanley a "ridiculous perk" that Fawell set up in the mid-1990s under orders from Ryan.

"It was a situation that shouldn't have existed, but it was a legal situation," Genson said.

Next up, attorney Thomas Breen today is scheduled to offer his closing argument on behalf of Citizens for George Ryan. Prosecutors will get the chance to rebut the defense attorneys before the jury begins deliberations, possibly later in the day.

The trial at Chicago's Dirksen Federal Building began in mid-January.

Ryan, who was elected governor in 1998 and is retired, has not been charged.

Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or cnsramsey@aol.com.