Posted on 09/15/2009 7:59:20 AM PDT by STARWISE
Request followed shouting match at Milwaukee Ave. club
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Just days before he died of an apparent overdose, a defiant Christopher Kelly was resolved to fight a corruption trial he faced, if only to thumb his nose at federal authorities.
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's fund-raiser and adviser suddenly flip-flopped, however, after faced with another point of pressure. On the eve of trial, the government asked a judge to revoke Kelly's bond, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Hospital tapes from over the weekend are "very helpful and revealing" in their attempts to unravel the final hours before Christopher Kelly's death, Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch said.
"The motion pushed him over the edge," leading him to plead guilty, said a confidant, who asked not to be named. The confidant, however, did not blame the government for the beleaguered Kelly's apparent overdose four days later.
Kelly, who was steadfast that he'd never cooperate with prosecutors -- even after agreeing to surrender to jail this Friday -- had faced numerous stresses: he was indicted three separate times; he was separated from his wife; his house was in foreclosure, and he had long battled gambling and alcohol addictions.
The government's request came after Kelly got into what one source described as a shouting match with an owner of VLive Club. Kelly had demanded to see the club's books. He had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the business through his girlfriend, Clarissa Flores, sources familiar with the exchange said.
Kelly is not listed among the owners of the club, which hosted an Olympic 2016 meeting in July.
Before pleading guilty to an $8.5 million O'Hare Airport contract fraud last week, Kelly at times grew obsessed with the cases facing him and told others he knew there was almost no chance he would win at trial.
"He said: I'm not giving up, what else can I lose?" said the Kelly confidant. "He was possessed that he was getting screwed."
After his guilty plea, Kelly agreed not to go near the club at 2047 N. Milwaukee.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle asked Kelly if he was "being pressured or forced or shoved" into pleading guilty.
"I would be remiss if I didn't say that there was a great deal of pressure in my life right now," Kelly said. "But I'm doing it freely, and willingly, understandingly, knowingly, conscious of the ramifications of my actions, and I'm accepting responsibility here in front of you today, Judge Norgle."
Also Monday, Flores, who drove Kelly to the hospital the night of his apparent overdose, answered questions from investigators who had been pressing for her cooperation.
Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch said police are looking for Kelly's and Flores' cell phones, which contain the final text message between them. Later Monday, Welch said he plans to "lay out the timeline" leading up to Kelly's death at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "Bring your pen and paper, you will be very surprised," Welch said.
After Flores found Kelly sick in his SUV, she pushed him into Oak Forest Hospital in a wheelchair. He was "very combative and had to be restrained to calm him down," a source said.
When Kelly appeared stable and calm, Dr. Basava Ancha, who treated Kelly, decided it was best to transfer him to Stroger Hospital, where the county's top toxicologist was on duty.
Ancha rode with Kelly in the ambulance. The doctor could have detoured to Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, which is about eight miles away from Oak Forest Hospital, if needed. But there was no indication of an immediate need to go to Christ instead of Stroger, which is 25 miles away, the source said.
Ancha declined to comment.
Welch said prescription and over-the-counter pills were found in Kelly's SUV. A source said Kelly told police he took Tylenol for pain. Part of the police death investigation involves talking to a man identified through surveillance tapes who was at the hospital over the weekend. A second man, Michael Allen, had simply moved Kelly's SUV at the request of Kelly's wife.
On Sunday, Welch said that Kelly's remarks to a police officer indicated he had tried to kill himself.
CLARISSA FLORES | Former Whitney Young basketball star summoned to lumberyard by Kelly, drove him to hospital Comments
September 14, 2009
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL Staff Reporter
Clarissa Flores, the woman whom Christopher Kelly called for help in his final hours, is scheduled to meet today with investigators probing Kelly's death, according to Flores' attorney, Terry Gillespie.
Flores is a former Northwestern University and Whitney Young basketball player, a bright businesswoman, and "very honest," Gillespie said.
Police want to talk with Flores about the apparent drug overdose death of Kelly, 51, of Burr Ridge.
She had been trading text messages with Kelly before she drove from Chicago to a lumberyard in south suburban Country Club Hills and found him "cognizant" but covered in vomit, said Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch. She drove him to Oak Forest Hospital, where, police said, she identified herself as Kelly's girlfriend. Kelly was married.
Kelly was moved from Oak Forest Hospital, which does not have a trauma unit, to Stroger Hospital about 5:15 a.m. Saturday and died at 10:46 a.m., officials said.
Welch said Kelly lived with Flores at her condo in the Park Millennium building in the 200 block of North Columbus Drive.
In a news conference Sunday, Welch complained Flores was "lawyered up" and uncooperative with police.
An angry Gillespie said Flores had, in fact, made plans to talk with police today -- and that Welch should have talked with his own investigators to confirm the meeting.
"She's got nothing to hide, and she's devastated by the whole thing," said Gillespie, who briefly represented Blagojevich in his federal corruption case.
Flores, 30, whose driver's license lists her by her married name, Flores-Buhelos, came to public attention more than a decade ago as a star basketball player at Whitney Young High School. She combined athletic ability with skill and played a key role on the 1995 city championship team.
The 5-foot-8-inch guard went on to play at Northwestern University.
Flores married Pete Buhelos, an owner of the popular Wally's Restaurant in Park Ridge, according to a relative who asked not to be identified. Flores and Buhelos have been separated "for a long while," the relative said.
She is a manager at a Milwaukee Avenue club, Gillespie said. State records list her as a "manager/partner" at the VLive club, 2047 N. Milwaukee.
"She's a very lovely, a very honest woman,'' he said.
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* Several commenters were rightly upset today at the way Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch handled himself at a press conference announcing some of the details of Chris Kelly’s death. Well, they didn’t know the half of it. The Tribune has the unedited video from the presser. Yeesh.
~~PING!
Are Kelly’s cell phone and keys still missing, as is the white haired man?
I wonder if Michelle Obama was in on this meeting! Isn't she trying to get the Olympics hosted in Chicago. Wow! I hope they didn't leave her out of this meeting! Perhaps someone should notify her about this!
hmmmm..it gets more and more curious. Lots of new info in this article.
Michelle may not have been at the meeting regarding the olympics but I wonder if Desiree Rogers was?
The Following is from the Chicago Tribune regarding Desiree Rogers, social secretary and family friend to the Obamas. Reporters Contact info follows the posted info.
She is wrapping up her duties at Allstate Insurance Co., where she was creating a financial social networking program. But she is already studying the Kennedy White House, an administration renowned for its White House functions. “This is not just going to be about the culture and the arts,” she said. “Part of this is reaching out to all Americans.”
The Obamas seem highly disciplined. Rogers was coy when asked whether they can also party.
“We’ll see, won’t we,” she said. “I think the one thing that is very obvious is that they enjoy life and each other and their friends.”
Rogers is a longtime friend of the Obama family, worked on the campaign’s fundraising team and is especially close to Valerie Jarrett, another Obama confidant and someone who will be a senior adviser at the White House.
The former president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas is also on the board of trustees for both the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Museum of Science and Industry. She is part of Chicago’s effort to woo the 2016 Olympics and is a former director of the Illinois Lottery.
Rogers has a Harvard MBA and was once married to millionaire Chicago financier John Rogers, the head of Ariel Capital Management and another close Obama friend and fundraiser. She has one daughter, Victoria, 18, a student at Yale University.
Rogers said she never imagined she would work in the White House.
“I am giddy with excitement. As I look at my career and the work I have done, this is the perfect combination of some of the skill sets that I have,” she said. “I don’t think it can get much better than this.”
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
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