Posted on 01/21/2005 5:24:23 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
CHICAGO (AP) A federal judge in Chicago says she'll grant a request to delay George Ryan's racketeering trial after the former governor appeared in court to make a personal plea.
Ryan said several times today that he was "begging" U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to delay his March 14th trial. And his appeal worked. The trial date is now set for Sept. 26.
Pallmeyer says she'll allow the delay so Ryan won't be forced to replace his top defense attorney, who has a scheduling conflict. The trial will now begin in September.
Ryan told the judge that he came to court to request the delay because both his freedom and his "whole life's work is at stake."
Ryan has pleaded innocent to charges that he allowed a lobbyist to direct state employees to award contracts and leases to his clients. The indictment focuses on alleged corruption when Ryan was Illinois' secretary of state.
Pallmeyer had been reluctant to delay the trial but relented after Ryan's co-defendant, lobbyist friend Larry Warner, dropped his longtime demand for a speedy trial. Warner was indicted about a year before Ryan.
She said she would have agreed to the continuance for a lower-profile defendant and didn't want to treat Ryan differently because of his celebrity.
Ryan told Pallmeyer that if she went ahead with his trial as scheduled March 14, he would have to find a replacement for defense attorney Dan Webb, who is expected to be in court in the nation's capital then for an unrelated case.
"I have so much at stake in your decision that I felt compelled to come here to beg you for a continuance in this case," Ryan said in his deep, booming voice. "Not only is my freedom at stake but my whole life's work is at stake."
Pallmeyer originally told Ryan and the attorneys she would decide later.
Webb, a former U.S. attorney, is one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers. He has been the lead lawyer for Microsoft, General Electric and the New York Stock Exchange in major court battles.
The Ryan indictment, which focuses largely on allegations of corruption when he was Illinois secretary of state, accuses the former governor of illegally allowing lobbyist friend Larry Warner to direct state employees to award contracts and leases to his clients.
Ryan and Warner have both pleaded innocent.
Webb is defending Phillip Morris in the nation's capital in a massive government lawsuit against the tobacco industry. He told Pallmeyer he had expected the tobacco trial to be over by March 14, allowing him to come back to Chicago in time for the Ryan trial. But he said unexpected delays make it likely that the Washington case will not be over until July 1.
Ryan scored a tactical victory Friday morning when Warner's chief defense counsel, Edward M. Genson, announced that his client was no longer demanding a speedy trial as he has for the past two years and would like the court to grant Ryan's request for a delay.
Pallmeyer made it plain that she would not have allowed a delay had Warner not done an about-face.
Genson, one of Chicago's top criminal defense lawyers, said he and Warner understood the importance of Ryan having the attorney of his choice and said it was important for the former governor to have a lawyer of Webb's capabilities.
"If I were in trouble, he's the guy I'd like to have standing next to me," Genson said.
Webb told Pallmeyer he didn't want to let Ryan down.
"He's in the fight of his life in this courtroom," Webb said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick M. Collins, the chief prosecutor in the case, urged Pallmeyer to stick to her March date.
Collins reminded Pallmeyer that Warner had made "incessant, repeated, enthusiastic statements of the need for a speed trial -- now all of a sudden, poof, it's gone."
The dramatic mood in the courtroom was intensified by the presence in the spectator benches of both former Gov. James R. Thompson, now the head of Webb's Winston & Strawn law firm, and U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR THE 2005 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Anyone with the last name "Ryan" should be banned from the Illinois GOP.
This trial will be probably be at it's height by the time the next election comes around.
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