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Democrat consultant sentenced to prison
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Thursday, April 6, 2006
Author: Michael Higgins and Laurie Cohen, Tribune staff reporters.
Robert Creamer , a top Democratic consultant and the husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), was sentenced Wednesday to 5 months in prison for using bad checks to prop up his struggling consumer group and for a tax charge.
Creamer, founder and former head of Illinois Public Action, also must serve 11 months of home confinement. But he escaped the longer sentence of 30 to 37 months suggested by federal guidelines.
Creamer, 58, of Evanston, apologized in court for his conduct but maintained that he had merely been overzealous in his support of a good cause.
“I will never again allow my passion for that goal to overwhelm my good judgment or my respect for the law,” Creamer said in a short statement after the hearing.
Schakowsky said in her own statement: “More than anything, I am proud of who Bob is. ... He has been a constant crusader.”
Creamer pleaded guilty in August to bank fraud and a federal tax charge. But his attorneys argued that he should not serve prison time because he didn’t take the money for his personal use, covered the debts later and has led an “extraordinary” life devoted to social activism.
Prosecutors countered that Creamer’s arguments sounded more like self-promotion than true remorse. But U.S. District Judge James Moran agreed that Creamer was not like a typical bank-fraud defendant.
“There was no intention to cause a loss,” Moran said in court. “Neither the banks nor the government suffered any actual out-of-pocket loss.”
Moran said he also considered that the case against Creamer played out slowly after the check-kiting scheme was discovered in 1997, subjecting Creamer to an “emotionally draining experience.”
More than 200 people wrote letters of support on Creamer’s behalf, including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cook County Clerk David Orr, state Sen. Carol Ronen (D-Chicago), Chicago Ald. Joe Moore (49th), former State Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner.
Political consultant David Axelrod and Rev. Jesse Jackson also wrote letters on his behalf.
Creamer’s ties to the Democratic community are so deep that Moran considered recusing himself from the case. The judge, a former Democratic state representative from Evanston, said he had a potential conflict of interest because his son-in-law, political consultant Peter Giangreco, had worked with Creamer and Schakowsky and had sat on the board of one of Creamer’s organizations.
However, neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors voiced concerns about Moran’s connections to Creamer.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Ferguson said Wednesday that he was disappointed in the sentence and that prosecutors would consider whether to appeal.
But Ferguson expressed satisfaction that Creamer, despite “having the benefit of that powerful network of individuals, is going to jail.”
Creamer admitted in August that as the head of Illinois Public Action, he directed underlings to deposit insufficiently funded checks into various bank accounts, thus allowing the group to temporarily use money that it didn’t have.
Prosecutors said Creamer used the tactic in 1993, 1996 and 1997, when the scheme was detected with Creamer owing $1.4 million to Cole Taylor Bank.
The tax charge stemmed from Creamer’s failure to make withholding-tax payments. Prosecutors dismissed 28 counts in exchange for the guilty plea.
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thank you