Did probes take deadly toll on Scott?

Chicago Sun Times ^ | 11-19-09 | Mary Mitchell

[STARWISE]

We may never know what drove Chicago School Board President Michael Scott to take his life.

At the time of his death, Scott had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury looking into the admissions practices at Chicago's selective-enrollment schools.

As a member of Mayor Daley's failed Olympic bid team, he also came under unfavorable media scrutiny for helping a group of ministers develop land that would have netted a hefty profit had the bid been successful.

Scott denied having a financial interest in the development.

Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), who has been charged with taking bribes and has been identified as wearing a wire for the feds, has not recorded any conversations with Scott, a source said.

Still, who knows what toll these probes were taking on Scott?

But if anyone can understand the pressures Scott may have faced, it would be Sharon Grant.

From 1993 to 1995, Grant headed up the Chicago Board of Education.

In 1996, Grant went to federal prison on tax charges.

She came home a year later and picked up the pieces of her life.

Grant started a consulting company, and quietly began helping children in juvenile detention centers nationally.

"We are not allowed to make a mistake, [but] we are all human," she said.

"Once an investigation starts, people feel pressured," Grant said, adding that she is not implying that Scott did anything wrong.

"He may have come out smelling like a rose," she said.

"But the mind has a way of working on your mental health."

Two other public officials, both of whom were snared in political scandals, have committed suicide.

Chris Kelly, indicted in the Rod Blagojevich case, committed suicide in September. Orlando Jones, the godson of former Cook County Board President John Stroger, died from a gunshot wound. His body was found on a Michigan beach.

If Scott, a longtime Daley ally, had been caught up in a federal investigation, it would have tarnished a name that has earned a great deal of respect in the city.

"My mother [Illa Daggett] was one of the people who put Michael on his road" to public service, Grant said.

"I remember going with my mother down to Daley's campaign office, and they had Michael stuffed back in a small little office. My mother was angry about how she perceived he was being treated," she recalled.

"They had to move Michael's office up to the front. My mother loved Michael Scott and wanted him to be successful."

Grant said she couldn't see Scott enduring a deluge of negative media.

They grew up on the West Side during an era when the worst thing you could do was bring "shame" on your family.

The weight of such condemnation can crush the spirit, Grant told me.

"When you are going through that, you are in a very dark place. You can't see any light. But nothing lasts forever."

As for Scott's upbeat attitude, Grant said most people saw only one side of him.

"Michael was not a jolly person. Michael was a serious person," she said.

"The reason he always wanted to please everybody is because Michael could not take confrontation. When people came at him, he co-opted.

"Michael didn't like to give bad news, and he couldn't take bad news," she said.

Friends and people who worked with Scott are still reeling from the shock of his sudden death.

On Wednesday, a coalition of ministers and activists called for a state or federal investigation into Scott's death.

The group argues that Scott's death should be classified as a murder.

But Grant believes that Scott's death isn't a matter of foul play.

"We need to look at the pressures and the turmoil that is caused by being in the public eye and having to function while under investigation," Grant said.

"Having been through a federal investigation, I know it is almost unbearable.

"But there is nothing that you can do in this life that is so bad that you take your life," she said.

"Michael couldn't stand any public humiliation because he loved this city and he loved the people in this city."

[STARWISE]

If Chicago School Board President Michael Scott had been caught up in a federal investigation, it would have tarnished a name that has earned a great deal of respect.

~~~~~~~~~

Chicago police: No homicide in schools chief death

###

*snip*

Earlier Wednesday, more than a dozen Chicago ministers and community activists said there is no way Scott willingly pressed a 380-caliber handgun to his head and pulled the trigger.

They gathered at a church on the city's West Side, some wiping away tears, and said they don't care that the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office has called Scott's death a suicide. They still want a full investigation.

They want the police to continue investigating, and they want state and federal authorities to conduct their own inquiries.

"We want answers and we want to know," said the Rev. George Henderson, a West Side pastor.

None of the ministers or activists had any answers about why anyone would want to harm Scott. Nor do they have any idea what he was doing in the dark spot along the Chicago River.

Some described how Scott told friends a couple weeks ago that he was worried about his children as they dealt with the recent death of their mother, his ex-wife.

"Michael would not put his children through the agony of him killing himself while they were mourning their mother," community activist Harold Davis said.

[STARWISE]

~~Chicago Way ........... PING!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Scott’s use of board credit card probed (Copenhagen/Olympics -ooh)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-michael-scott-sidebar-18-nov18,0,6408954.story

Excerpt:

In recent weeks, Chicago school board President Michael Scott was facing scrutiny for using his board credit card to pay for a trip to Copenhagen to lobby for the city’s Olympics bid.

The amount in question was not large — about $3,000 — and there’s no indication that the matter had anything to do with Scott taking his life early Monday.

While Scott went to Copenhagen on behalf of Mayor Richard Daley’s Olympics bid team, his costs were not paid by the private group. Instead, he charged his airfare, hotel room, meals and bar tab to his expense account at the school board.

Scott, who traveled with his wife, stayed at the 71 Nyhavn, a four-star hotel on the Copenhagen waterfront from Sept. 29 until Oct. 3.

Weeks after his return, Scott’s travel expenses came under scrutiny after the Tribune inquired about spending by board members.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did Mayor Daley’s jab at media mean he’s ready to leave?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1896693,CST-NWS-daleyoprah21.article

Excerpt:

Mayor Daley’s decision to blame the media for Oprah Winfrey’s career-altering choice to pull the plug on her syndicated talk show after her 25th season is preposterous. But it’s also incredibly revealing.

When the mayor said, “You keep kicking people, and people will leave,” he just might have been talking about himself. Daley has been on the warpath about the media in recent months — to the point of aggressively challenging reporters.

And it’s not just the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals, the controversy about his trips aboard a nonprofit’s jet or the federal investigation into his nephew’s pension fund investments that seem to be getting under the mayor’s skin.

Just this week, Daley stormed away from the podium after a television reporter quoted African-American ministers as claiming that the mystery surrounding the death of Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott would have political fallout for Daley.

“What’s wrong with you people? Don’t you have any respect for people anymore? I know you want to make a lot of money. You want to be on TV. You want to ask me a lot of questions. But do you have any respect for anyone? I guess you don’t. It’s kind of a sad comment. You owe me an apology,” he said.

The Scott question was insulting. But Daley has been combative on other subjects while watching his approval rating plunge to a personal low of 35 percent.

After Chicago’s embarrassing first-round flameout in the Olympic sweepstakes, the mayor noted that reporters from Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo — the other finalists for the 2016 Summer Games — were cheerleaders for their cities.

Implied but not stated was his belief that the Chicago media hurt the city’s chances by focusing too heavily on the need for unlimited government guarantees and the lack of public support. In fact, Rio was the sentimental favorite because the Olympics have never before been held in South America.

When Daley held the line on taxes, fines and fees in his 2010 budget — by draining reserves generated by city asset sales — he thought he deserved to be applauded for having the financial foresight to turn parking meters into a pile of cash.

Instead, he was pilloried for mortgaging Chicago’s future.

[mia]

He won’t be the last person in Chicago politics to be Obamacided. They are becoming similar to the Arkancides of the Clinton administration.

[goodnesswins]

In Chicago...they keep wads of cash in drawers of certain schools.....to pay off people.....don’t ask my how I know this....

[Nervous Tick]

>> don’t ask me how I know this....

I don’t care how you know it. Just tell me what schools, what drawers, and when is the best time to go get it!

[Secret Agent Man]

Perhaps he just got so tired of the jokes about “The Office’s” goofy paper sales manager of Dunder-Mifflin, Michael Scott.

Or perhaps it was a purge by Daley or Obamanoids thinking their world would be better off with this man not breathing anymore.

[presently no screen name]

"We need to look at the pressures and the turmoil that is caused by being in the public eye and having to function while under investigation," Grant said.

Hey Grant, did you feel the same way when Sarah was being unmercifully hammered by false ethic complaints?

[bray]

Looks like this suicide is still unexplained. Another dirty Chicago pol.

Pray for America’s Freedom

[April Lexington]

$3,000 is chump change. Nobody kills himself over $3,000. He could have paid it back with no problem whatsoever. I think he was bumped...

[GunningForTheBuddha]

May we never know the kind of pressure that would drive a man to shoot himself twice in the back of the head, then suffocate himself with a baggie before driving all the way to Ft. Marcy, er, the river for a swim.

[Godwin1]

“...had been caught up in......” The passive voice is a reliable ally of shady Daley Machine pols who consciously commit dishonest acts. Maybe Scott was clean and his suicide has family or health explanations. But if he was clean, he was unique in that crowd.