Posted on 05/28/2009 12:26:22 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), a staunch ally of Mayor Richard Daley, was indicted today on charges he accepted about $40,000 in improvements to his residence as well as meals and tickets to sporting events in exchange for backing a major project by a developer.
The developer, Calvin Boender, was also indicted.
Carothers, 54, was charged with four counts of wire and mail fraud and one count each of accepting a bribe and filing a false federal income tax return.
Boender was charged with four counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of obstruction of justice, two misdemeanor counts of violating federal campaign finance laws and one count of paying a bribe. According to federal authorities, Boender sought to transform the city's largest undeveloped tract of land, a 50-acre former rail yard and industrial site in Carothers' West Side ward.
Carothers supported successful zoning changes for the Galewood Yards project, enabling half of the property to sold at a profit of about $3 million to Boender, the charges alleged.
Between June and September 2004, Boender allegedly paid for about $40,000 in improvements to Carothers' home, including painting both the exterior and interior and installing new windows and exterior doors as well as central air conditioning.
Boender directed a general contractor who worked for him to provide the home improvements without charging Carothers, authorities said.
The developer also paid for meals for Carothers and gave him free tickets to professional sporting events, including skybox tickets for at least one White Sox playoff game during its World Series run in 2005, according to the charges.
Federal authorities have been investigating Carothers, chairman of the City Council's Police and Fire Committee, for the past several years. Federal investigators subpoenaed city records in 2007 on four real estate projects backed by Carothers in his ward.
One of those developments, Galewood Yards, was featured last year in a yearlong Tribune series that chronicled how a broken zoning process often rewards deep-pocketed developers and others with political connections.
The October 2007 federal subpoena to City Hall sought all zoning records, building permits and Galewood Yards-related correspondence from Carothers.
Boender has been a major campaign contributor to Carothers as well as U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
Carothers has long championed the council tradition that gives aldermen power over what gets built in their wards.
When a fellow alderman wanted a "Big Box" store in 2006, Carothers backed her. And he had publicly defended then-Ald. Arenda Troutman's prerogative to kill a housing development in her ward, even as Troutman was under federal indictment for soliciting bribes from a developer in another project.
Carothers is the first alderman to face federal charges since Troutman (20th) was charged in 2007 with demanding campaign money and bribes to support developers' projects. Troutman became the 27th Chicago alderman to be convicted of wrongdoing since 1972 when she pleaded guilty last fall. She was sentenced in February to 4 years in prison.
Carothers' father, William Carothers (28th), was himself convicted in federal court of attempting to extort a hospital contractor for free remodeling work on his offices in 1981.
Carothers is Daley's foremost political ally on the West Side.
After serving as a deputy commissioner in the mayor's Streets and Sanitation Department, he became an alderman in 1999. Daley passed over many council members with greater seniority to appoint Carothers as chairman of the important Police and Fire Committee.
Carothers enjoyed significant influence in the mayor's administration long before becoming an alderman, using his clout to help many pro-Daley political workers find spots on the public payroll. He was listed as the political sponsor of almost 100 city job-seekers in the 1990s, according to a long-secret "clout list" maintained by the mayor's patronage hiring coordinators.
"Patrick Fitzgerald you are a loser. Your Wonkette editors had prepared for the worst regarding this impending indictment of an elected official in Chicago, “joking” that it was “probably just some alderman.” And that’s all it is, some slob who looks like Jesse Jackson after eating Rush Limbaugh: “Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), a staunch ally of Mayor Richard Daley, was indicted today on federal public-corruption charges.”"
Yep non story!
Daley should be getting very nervous...There is no honor between theives in Chicago....They’ll turn each other in just for a few months of freedom or a better jail cell.
Carothers is the first alderman to face federal charges since Troutman (20th) was charged in 2007 with demanding campaign money and bribes to support developers’ projects. Troutman became the 27th Chicago alderman to be convicted of wrongdoing since 1972 when she pleaded guilty last fall. She was sentenced in February to 4 years in prison.
...
That’s quite a long dry spell in the Windy City.
Unknown to many, an Alderman can approve zoning changes worth millions of dollars on his/her own signiture, without even a vote of the city council. Stroke of the pen, law of Chicagoland.
Getting money for zoning changes is the ATM for Chicago aldermen.
What is an alderman equal to in other city’s or states? We have city council and mayors.
Fitz bags another minnow while the RAT whales swim past him.
Fitzy opens anothe “Al Capone’s Vault”.
BWWWWHAAAAAAA!!!!
~eh Fitz, u da man!
Thuggery and coruption in Chicago politics. The real question here...how come the indictment? What did this guy do or say, who did he blow off or upset, to get a Fitzgerald on his case? Obviously his name wasn’t picked out of a hat!
Yawn!!
The next question is...Can Fitz connect Boender to Rezko?
That is indeed the question. Put another way, is this indictment part of a larger operation?
Carothers inherited his dads’ council seat,like Todd Stroger and Richie Daley.The Chicago Machine sure is an incestuous bunch,huh?
With Fitz...every indictment is part of a larger, overall plan. I believe his ultimately goal is to get as close to Little Dick Daley as possible.
He’s not concerned about Opossum to the point of specifically NOT chasing down those leads. He wants Daley.
This is Fitzy’s big suprise indictment? What an attention whore.
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