Ex-lawmaker pleads guilty in bribes case

By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer
Published May 8, 2003, 11:32 AM CDT

A former state lawmaker pleaded guilty Thursday to trading bribes for contracts from Chicago's Metra commuter rail service and promised to help prosecutors investigate corruption under former Gov. George Ryan.

Roger Stanley, 60, a onetime GOP state representative from suburban Streamwood, faces a possible 20-year sentence for his guilty plea to mail fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges.

But federal prosecutors made it plain that the longtime Ryan friend and Republican insider has gone a long way toward whittling down that potential sentence by cooperating with them.

"We've spent a lot of time with Mr. Stanley,'' said Patrick Collins, the assistant U.S. attorney who is the chief prosecutor in the government's five-year Operation Safe Road investigation.

The investigation is focused on corruption when Ryan was secretary of state in the eight years before his 1998 election as governor. More than 50 people, including many friends and former aides to Ryan, have been convicted. His campaign committee was convicted of racketeering charges.

Ryan has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Stanley's 27-page written plea agreement makes fresh disclosures concerning governmental corruption.

Among other things, it tells how he and an unnamed co-schemer arranged to get a job in the real estate business for a political candidate who then steered a state grant.

Stanley also admitted using his direct mail consulting firm to send out literature derogatory toward certain candidates and using bogus names to conceal the source of the documents from postal officials.

Stanley was accused of making payoffs to land $4 million in contracts with Metra.

He was charged with making the payoffs to then-Metra board member Donald Udstuen, a political strategist who was long close to Ryan and other top Illinois Republicans.

As chief lobbyist for the Illinois State Medical Society, Udstuen was in charge of one of the state's biggest campaign funding groups, which in turn gave him wide influence throughout politics.

Udstuen was not charged in connection with the payoffs from Stanley, although he has admitted that he received them. He has pleaded guilty to charges involving a scheme to steer contracts in the secretary of state's office under Ryan in conjunction with lobbyist Larry Warner.

After leaving the Legislature, Stanley founded the largest Republican direct-mail house in the state, with many big political names as clients.

The company, Unistat, filled mailboxes across Illinois with campaign literature and requests for campaign contributions.

Ryan's former top aide, Scott Fawell, was convicted recently on federal racketeering charges, including awarding a lucrative contract to Unistat to publicize the secretary of state's organ donor program while receiving favors from Stanley.

Stanley allegedly took Fawell on fishing trips to Costa Rica in which the services of prostitutes were part of the entertainment.

In addition to awarding the contracts to Stanley, Fawell and Ryan also arranged for the former lawmaker to get a job on the governor's payroll. While he was a state employee for only a matter of weeks, that gave him enough time in service to almost double his state pension.
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