Posted on 03/01/2006 5:05:22 AM PST by LouAvul
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - When poor students from this impoverished city got into college, Charlie Powell Jr. chipped in so they could attend.
He got a trophy case for a junior high school. He ran a clean, loving boarding home for people who were homeless or mentally ill, keeping them safe and off the streets.
Along the way, he rose to great political power, in recent years as a precinct committeeman and head of the local Democratic Party. It's that position that proved to be his undoing.
In a federal courtroom Tuesday, despite testimony reciting his good works, Powell was ordered to spend a year and nine months in prison for scheming to buy votes in the November 2004 election.
Opting to let his attorney and four character witnesses speak for him, Powell, 62, didn't get the probation he was seeking. But he still caught a break from U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy, who turned back a federal prosecutor's request that Powell get something close to nearly three years behind bars.
"He's done a very good job for himself and the people he serves," Murphy noted. "The simple truth is that politics in the state of Illinois is a real contact sport and obviously a very dangerous occupation to undertake."
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
The slant on this article is unbelievable.
You're right, it's pretty bad even by AP's low standards. It sounds as if it were written by Powell himself. A shameless puff piece.
Opting to let his attorney and four character witnesses speak for him....
Was Andrew Young booked already? Yup, he was pandering to a jury in the Bill Campbell trial and couldn't make it.
No one in any ranking position in IL politics escapes jail. I've been watching this fair state for over a decade. Its where they send you when you don't win relection.
I wish I was joking. This state is corrupt.
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