Posted on 09/12/2009 1:57:04 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Two sources with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune today they have been notified that Christopher Kelly, a key figure in the federal corruption probe into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is dead.
The Cook County medical examiners office today confirmed that a body identified as Christopher Kelly was brought to the morgue from Stroger Hospital. The office would not provide any details, including his age, address and manner of death, because the family had not yet arrived at the office.
Kellys attorney, Michael Monico, declined to comment today when reached by a Tribune reporter.
Kelly is a former confidant and top fundraiser for Blagojevich, who was accused of using his office to leverage campaign donations and benefits for himself and his family.
Kelly, who was indicted alongside Blagojevich in April, pleaded guilty this week in a separate federal case.
On Tuesday, in a surprise move just a day before his scheduled trial, Kelly, owner of a roofing business, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud as part of a kickback scheme to illegally obtain $8.5 million in work at O'Hare International Airport.
At the time, Kelly, 51, said he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to cooperate in their investigation of Blagojevich, but he refused.
Kelly faced a sentence of almost 5 years in prison on top of the roughly 3 years in prison he got in June for his guilty plea to tax offenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com ...
Now that is interesting! I did a quick search but couldn't find anything. Perhaps I used the wrong keywords.
Which being said, is it more or less likely, then, that his "suicide" was involuntary?
Yep on all your points. But the timing seems like they wouldn’t have an affidavit so soon after he caved. They’d want to take their time, interrogate him some more, then get it just right. We’ll find out soon enough.
The incidence of pediatric salicylate poisoning has declined steadily since 1965 as a result of safety packaging, legislation limiting the number of tablets in bottles of children's aspirin, and decreased use because of the association between aspirin use and Reye's syndrome. Similarly, the increased use of nonsalicylate nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has resulted in a reciprocal decrease in the incidence of adult salicylate poisoning. Despite these trends, however, salicylate continues to be a major cause of poisoning morbidity and mortality, with thousands of exposures and dozens of deaths reported in the United States each year. Additionally, salicylate poisoning is misdiagnosed and mistreated with alarming frequency (1,19).
Remember that "salicylates" can include other compounds related to aspirin. These compounds can differ in taste among one another. Then, too, a crafty poisoner might try to improve the taste of lethal drug with a biologically inert additive to make it more palatable to the victim.
That having been said, it's still most likely a suicide if salicylate poisoning was the actual cause of death, but homicide must still be ruled out.
New to the forum here. Please forgive me in advance for any formatting errors etc. I lurk every now and again, but hello to all.
Couple of nagging questions about events leading up to Kelly’s death.
His girlfriend takes him to Oak Forest Hospital. For all intents and purposes, this cook county run facility is little more than a nursing home and rehabilitation center. To my knowledge it doesn’t even have an ER. At first reading the story, it stood out like a sore thumb for obvious reasons. A man who is vomiting all over himself and on the verge of death from OD and you take him to a 90 yr old facility with NO EMERGENCY ROOM? ‘Fishy’...
2nd... after 6 hours (reportedly) they transfer him to another hospital with better facilities. Do they take him to Ingalls, South Suburban or any of 5 other hospitals with advanced medical care facilities that can be reached in 15 or so minutes? Of course they DON’T.
Instead they decide to transfer him to Stroger Hospital (another cook county hospital) 25 miles to the north.
Anyone else smell something rotten in Chicagoland?
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