Ex-Chicago official found guilty of hiring fraud

AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/23/09 | Mike Robinson - ap

[NormsRevenge]

CHICAGO – A federal jury convicted Chicago's former streets and sanitation commissioner Monday of using bogus documents and other fraudulent acts in a scheme to load the city payroll with political campaign workers.

Al Sanchez, 61, looked on without expression as U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman read the guilty verdicts on four charges of mail fraud and acquittals on three others. Each count carries a maximum 20-year sentence.

Afterward, Sanchez said the conviction was unfair.

"We had a job to do and we did it and now I'm sitting up here convicted of crimes and I don't know what the crime is," Sanchez said.

[NormsRevenge]

Consider it a clean sweep, Al.

[RichInOC]

That’s illegal in Chicago? Since when?

[NormsRevenge]

“We had a job to do and we did it and now I’m sitting up here convicted of crimes and I don’t know what the crime is,” Sanchez said.

—

That could pass for any DemocRat in Congre$$ today. They fail to see the error of their ways.

Nice touch, having Fitzgerald prosecuting.

[Texas Eagle]

I hope this doesn’t tarnish Chicago’s squeaky clean political image.

[A. Morgan]

Al Sanchez, I guess you won’t be committing any more mail fraud any time soon.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Can’t believe that this could happen in Chicago.

[Winstons Julia]

Oh, it’s the whole state. Allegedly once Blago was in office allegedly all the road crew guys in a western county allegedly MIGHT have lost their jobs...they were registered (allegedly) Republican.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

“Oh, it’s the whole state.”

Been there, never coming back......

[Winstons Julia]

I don’t blame you. We’re not all bad, though.

[EDINVA]

Not like he won’t already know many of his fellow inmates.

[Syncro]

So hiring “fraud” makes you guilty?

Employer Obama’s in deep, almost every one he hires is a fraud.

[BillyBoy]

>> That could pass for any DemocRat in Congre$$ today. They fail to see the error of their ways. Nice touch, having Fitzgerald prosecuting. <<

It's interesting, now we've seen Fitz put dozens of crooked Chicago Democrat henchmen in jail, including some of the HIGHEST ranking officials in the Chicago machine (Laski, the city clerk; Rezko, the top fundraiser for the machine, Sanchez, the head of the Hispanic Democrat Organization, etc.) -- yet a bunch of freepers here who are clueless about Illinois politicians continue to INSIST Fitz is a "card-carrying partisan Democrat" because he happened to prosecute ONE high ranking official in the same party as them.

Seems to me the only ones being "partisan" is them. Talk about tunnel vision. The Fitz haters here remind me of the Ken Starr haters c. 1998. They were fine with Starr for YEARS when he helped their case against corrupt Republicans. But the moment he had evidence against Clinton, they decided he was an evil overzealous right-wing partisan maniac on a witch hunt.

[Godwin1]

Sanchez has a point. He is facing jail for the “crime” of providing municipal jobs to those connected to the local Democrat Machine. Another example of the bullying, posturing, publicity hound Fitzgerald picking on a weak, politically vulnerable defendant. And how do Fitzgerald's assistant US Attorneys get their jobs, if not through “connections”—think any attorney can just launch a resume over the DOJ transom? Chicago USAttorney job openings are not listed on the government jobs website, although openings for other agency legal spots ARE publicly advertised.
Meanwhile, violent gangs render large parts of Chicago unlivable, illegal alien multiple offenders are released on the city's streets again and again, and narcotics are sold openly in open air Chicago drug markets. Clown Fitzgerald plays corruption fighter by busting low level—truck drivers!—”jobs for the boys” schemes. What a poseur!