From the State Journal-Register:

Fawell guilty
So is George Ryan's campaign committee

By MIKE RAMSEY
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

CHICAGO - After more than six days of deliberation, a federal jury on Wednesday convicted Scott Fawell and former Gov. George Ryan's campaign organization of racketeering.

Prosecutors declined to say whether Ryan, who retired in January, is their next target for a corruption indictment.

The panel of five women and seven men endorsed each of the government's nine counts against Fawell, 45, who was Ryan's top aide when the Kankakee Republican was secretary of state during much of the 1990s. Besides the core racketeering count, Fawell was convicted of mail fraud, theft of government funds, obstruction of justice, perjury and filing false tax returns.

The jury also concurred with the government's four related counts against Citizens for George Ryan, commonly called CFR, the organization that Fawell directed during Ryan's 1998 election as governor. It was the first time a campaign entity has been convicted of racketeering, said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fawell, who is scheduled for sentencing June 26, was accused of diverting public employees and other resources to aid Ryan and his GOP allies and fixing state contracts for cronies. The DuPage County native, son of former Republican state Sen. Bev Fawell, was grim-faced as U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer read the jury’s verdicts shortly after 3 p.m.

Jurors received the complex case the afternoon of March 11 after hearing eight weeks of testimony from more than 40 witnesses and receiving scores of documents, including incriminating memos drafted by Fawell himself.

“We did the best we could,” Fawell’s defense attorney, Ed Genson, said as he and his client left the Dirksen Federal Building. “This is the system, we’re going to appeal it, and hopefully there’ll be another day.”

Prosecutors and CFR’s defense attorney, Thomas Breen, quickly agreed to a tentative forfeiture deal, approved by Pallmeyer, under which the campaign organization will pay $750,000 for both defendants from $1 million in frozen campaign funds. Breen said Ryan had given him the go-ahead in a brief phone conversation, and he did not plan to appeal the conviction.

“It was my instruction from day one that if a jury or others felt that Citizens For Ryan owed money to the state of Illinois ... that we would gladly reimburse anybody who may have been harmed,” Breen said. “It was never the intention of the committee itself to take anything away that rightfully belongs to the people of the state of Illinois.”

Prosecutors said Fawell was ruthless in using taxpayer resources, then tried to cover up his activities by ordering the destruction of documents that federal agents were seeking and lying to a grand jury. Fawell did not testify during his trial.

“We think the verdict by the jury sends a clear message that such corruption and obstruction of justice should not be tolerated and will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted,” Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney, said at a news conference.

He declined to say whether Ryan is the government’s next target in its ongoing “Operation Safe Road” case, which has netted 55 convictions stemming from corruption in the secretary of state’s office under Ryan.

Ryan was implicated in the Fawell trial, perhaps most notably in testimony from his former scheduler, William Mack. Mack claimed Ryan was present in September 1998 as Fawell ordered the removal of CFR material illegally housed at Ryan’s secretary of state offices in the James R. Thompson Center.

“We’re not commenting on any individuals who are not on trial. The case is not over; we still have an indictment to be tried in September,” Fitzgerald said, referring to corruption charges pending against longtime Ryan friend Larry Warner, who allegedly fixed secretary of state contracts and leases. “The investigation continues.”

Fitzgerald also wouldn’t say what kind of a jail sentence the government will seek for Fawell. The racketeering conviction alone could bring a maximum of 20 years in prison, according to a news release issued upon Fawell’s indictment last year.

“We’re talking years, not months,” Fitzgerald said.

Assistant U.S. attorney Patrick Collins, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the government will not ask for fines beyond the forfeiture amount.

As for CFR, which Ryan started in the mid-1970s as his political apparatus, it’s basically “an indigent entity” with less than $22,000 in the bank, Breen said. The $250,000 that may be left over from the forfeiture deal is expected to go toward the organization’s legal bills, a legitimate use, prosecutors said.

Ryan, who chose not to seek a second term as governor, could not be reached for comment.

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich ran on a reform platform largely directed at Ryan’s scandals. In Springfield, he told reporters that the Fawell verdict underscores the continuing need for an ethics overhaul in Illinois.

“Now more than ever we need to regain the confidence and faith and trust of the people, and this verdict is another reminder about the urgency to do that,” Blagojevich said.

Breen predicted federal prosecutors have already scared the political community into changing the gray areas of their behavior.

“I think everybody should beware that reform may be coming by way of criminal indictment,” he said.

Told of the remark, Fitzgerald replied: “(The Fawell case) was not political reform, it was prosecuting a crime. If that leads to political reform, that’s a great thing. But we shouldn’t dress it up as being something other than what it was - people committed a crime and got caught.”

Patrick Guinane of the State Capitol Bureau contributed to this report. Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or cnsramsey@aol.com.