Posted on 05/04/2014 5:23:05 AM PDT by csvset
SPRINGFIELD Described by the prosecution as a scourge on Chicago, ex-Country Clubs Hills Police Chief Regina Evans was sentenced late Thursday to five years in prison for stealing more than $900,000 in state grant money.
Opting against the 10-year, one-month sentence that federal prosecutors sought, U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough nonetheless told Evans that she broke the law in magnificent fashion with a magnificent fraud.
The heart of the governments fraud case against Evans centered on her misuse of a $1.25 million state work-training grant that was part of her effort to revive the Regal Theater on the South Side. Evans pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy charges last year.
Thats what makes your fall from grace so shocking to me, the fact you of all people knew these were crimes, Myerscough said, alluding to Evans background on the south suburban police department and her lengthy time as a homicide detective and narcotics officer with the Chicago Police Department.
After a day of emotional testimony from her daughter, ex-husband, minister and family friends, Evans delivered a tearful 10-minute apology for her crime that drew sobs from many of the roughly two dozen supporters who crowded into the federal courtroom in downtown Springfield.
"I made some bad decisions in my journey to save the Regal Theater, a gaunt-looking Evans, dressed in a red jumpsuit with her ankles chained, told the judge.
I made a mistake. I was wrong. But is that enough to take my life away and keep me away from my child and family?" asked Evans, who has a 15-year-old son still at home.
Her 60 months in prison is to be followed by three years of supervised release, with the first year to be served in home detention. The remaining two years of supervised release require her to do 20 hours per week of unpaid community service.
Plus, Evans was ordered to make immediate restitution to the state for more than $917,000 in funds that prosecutors say was spent improperly from a $1.25 million Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity work-training grant tied to her and her husband's renovation of the Regal Theater.
To this day and very minute, she has never acknowledged the extent of the carnage she has caused, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass said in a blistering argument for a lengthier term.
Shes not a person of complete, good character, he continued. Shes been a financial and personal scourge on the city of Chicago.
To drive home those points, the prosecution brought forth one witness, who is a quadriplegic music promoter from Milwaukee, to testify how Evans bankrupted him by not sharing at least $262,900 in ticket sale revenue he was owed from a 2008 rap and hip-hop concert he staged at a Dolton venue she owned.
Ms. Evans ruined my life. Thats all I can say, Robert Sain, 31, said as he sat in his wheelchair while testifying remotely via video from Milwaukee.
But Evans lawyer, Lawrence Beaumont, outlined a far different picture of his client as he made the pitch to Myerscough to impose a 36-month sentence on his client.
Beaumont cited her decorated work as a suburban and city police officer and noted that former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. got a more lenient 30-month prison term for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds and Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner avoided prison altogether despite evading almost $5.6 million in taxes.
She was a chief of police at Country Club Hills for part of this time. She was for 21 years a Chicago police officer, Beaumont told Myerscough. But she literally risked her life for the people of the city of Chicago. Shes been shot at on multiple occasions. Shes been attacked on multiple occasions. Shes saved peoples lives on multiple occasions.
Without naming names, Beaumont lashed out at the prosecution during the hearing, accusing the government of having a misguided vendetta against her. He said she made telephone calls and wore a wire on behalf of the government in pursuit of other targets, but she didnt deliver any prized political pelts sought by prosecutors.
In my humble opinion, part of the prosecution in this case had some kind of vendetta against her because she refused to cooperate or didnt cooperate the way they felt she should against some political people in Chicago. They seem to want to take that out on her, which in my opinion is inappropriate, Beaumont said.
During testimony in her two-day sentencing hearing, U.S. Postal Inspector Basil Demczak indicated the government criminal investigation into grant fraud at the Department of Commerce and Opportunity remains ongoing.
Asked later to clarify those remarks, Bass said, I can only speak for whats in the record. Again, whats in the record is what Inspector Demczak testified to, and that is this case arose from an investigation of DCEOs employment opportunity grant program that was targeted at helping underrepresented persons, underprivileged minority persons in the Chicago-area community.
The investigation involved not just looking at Ms. Evans as one grantee but the entire program and whether or not other persons, other grantees, or other public officials had engaged in any wrongdoing. Inspector Demczak testified that investigation is ongoing, Bass said, declining to name any targets.
Much of Thursdays testimony revolved around a succession of character witnesses Beaumont brought forth to bolster his case for leniency, including Evans daughter, minister, ex-husband and a man she took in as a troubled youth.
I just really miss my mother, her 31-year-old daughter, Jennifer Joanes tearfully told the court.
Dennis Banahan, a former Chicago police lieutenant to whom Evans was married for seven years in the 1990s, broke down as well when he testified that his ex-wife has got a heart the size of Alaska but warmer.
As for the charges she pleaded guilty to, Banahan called them preposterous and refused to accept them as fact, suggesting his ex-wife admitted wrongdoing merely because shes afraid of going to prison for 20 years.
And Nicholas Mobley, 35, told Myerscough that Evans took him in and cared for him as a teen when his mother had AIDS. Mobley compared Evans to a female Martin Luther King.
Bass pounced on that comparison.
Dr. King didnt steal from people, did he? Bass asked.
Im not aware of that, Mobley answered.
Before she handed down Evans sentence, Myerscough seemed to dismiss much of what she was hearing from the former police chiefs supporters, saying much of the testimony didnt comport with the massive fraud prosecutors had proven and that she had admitted to.
Its almost as if theres a delusion somewhere in this room, the judge said.
Of course it's on going, because anytime " grants' are available, the crooks line up.
I think she looks a bit like Snoop Dog.
***Thats what makes your fall from grace so shocking to me***
Fall from grace? I’ll bet if you kick over a few rocks it was just another day at the office.
How did I know?
Yes.
We need to put more women in positions of power. They are less corruptible then men. /sarc
How many of those you arrested and helped incarcerate could say the same?
Its almost as if theres a delusion somewhere in this room, the judge said.
Criminal. Go to Jail, Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200. Bwahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
The residents of Country Club Hills must have felt so good about themselves hiring a black female to head up their police department. I wonder how much she pocketed there.
“I made a mistake. [...] I used some bad judgment.”
How about, “I used my position to steal as much as I could, and I got caught. I hate when that happens!”
You got that right, your honor. The judge understands our dilemma----w/ the Chicago kingpins of crime occupying the WH. God only knows the cons being perpetrated.
And get this: Valerie Jarrett is billed as Obama's "senior policy advisor----in Chicago gangland parlance that means "wire transfer artist"
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHICAGOLAND (Yes, that Rev Wright) Rev Jeremiah's Wright's beloved daughter was recently caught pilfering from a $1.25 million state grant which financed a tax-exempt, not-for-profit work and education program called "We Are Our Brother's Keeper," owned by Regina Evans, former police chief of Country Club Hills, and her husband, Ronald Evans Jr.
<><> 6/8/13 Regina Evans (above) pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges related to the misuse of a $1.25 million state grant to a non-profit organization she ran with her husband, Ronald Evans Jr.
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BACKUP---October 11, 2011 ---- Police Chief Regina Evans Resigns
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (CBSLOCAL.COM) Country Club Hills Mayor said that negotiations were underway to clear the way for the resignation of police Chief Regina Evans, in office for about two years,
<><> Regina Evans was on (ahem) disability leave since August 2011,
<><> it was earlier reported that Illinois AG's office is suing Regina Evans' n/p over its handling of state job training grant worth more than $500,000.
<><> Evans also signed off on invoices for a controversial summer camp where the campers including children of aldermen who voted for it got paid to attend (Chicago-way--"redistribution of income").
<><> Most recently, Evans came under fire for overseeing a 2011 part-time police program where 10 part-time police officers were hired.... bur that many had questionable backgrounds, and werent qualified to do police work. They were ordered to turn in their guns and badges (got high-paid city sanitation jobs).
The SouthtownStar contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
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"My Brother's Keeper" scam rears its ugly head in Washington.
WASH/POST---Community lenders network commits to lend $1 billion in support of Obama's My Brothers Keeper / By Zachary A. Goldfarb, March 6, 2014
A network of (ahem) community lenders is committing to lending (?) $1 billion in support of President Obamas My Brothers Keeper initiative that aims to boost the life chances of young African and Hispanic men.
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Yawn.....just goes to show: there's always a sap-happy Dem/Lib willing to say they're "for" their fellow-man---and conniving to make a buck on it.
Right, Ted-----CHICAGO NEWSPAPERS EVEN HAVE A SPECIAL "Homicide Watch" SECTION----to "celebrate Chicago values."
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CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL STRONGLY DEFENDED "CHICAGO VALUES"
Just recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel gracefully plied into the controversy created after Alderman Proco Joe Moreno (1st ward) publicly announced his opposition to Chick-Fil-A opening in his ward b/c the Christian company demurred WRT homo-marriages.
Mayor Rham chuckled while doing a graceful plie: "It's easy to do business in Chicago when you know 'the rules.' Chick-Fil-A can open in our town as long as it adopts 'Chicago Values.' "
(1) weekly cash pay off to the alderman;
(2) hire six of the alderman's friends who work only random days of the month,
(3) BIG AL from the Mayor's office picks up all cash in brown paper bags at CFA's back door,
(4) Chick Fil A staff trained by Chicago PD to shoot 10-12 customers per month,
(5) Any CFA customers actually killed must be registered to vote as Democrats at the autopsies,
(6) $100,00 campaign contribution to Obama,
(7) free food to Jesse Jackson, Jr, who is now "convalescing in jail," b/c he screwed up buying Obama's Senate seat....and free sandwiches to ex-Gov Blago now in jail for running an auction to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.
(a) they took control of the US Census;
(b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS).
THE SMOKING GUN---WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.
When he got to Treasury, WH COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings of the Treasury that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09
More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html
THIS MADE ME LAUGH OUT LOUD shortly after quitting his powerful WH job as Obama's COS, Rahm held a presser declaring he "just remembered" he really, Really wanted to be Mayor of Chicago. Then Rahm announced he had magically "raised" $10 million for his campaign in "just a matter of weeks." (waiting for hysterical laughter to die down). Ya gotta wonder how much Wall Street Rahm wired offshore when Obama put him in charge of the entire US Treasury.
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Rahm Emanuel takes over Chicago / May 16, 2011
EDITED EXCERPT .... an exciting time in the inbred world of Chicago Democratic politics.... Democratic don, Richard M. Daley ruled for 22 years, inheriting the mayoralty from his father, Mayor Richard J. Daley who held on for a generation. Now the ex-chief of staff of Chicagoan Barack Obama (once a state Senator, now president) was installed. US Treasury Secy Tim Geithner was there, and so was Chicagoan David Axelrod, an O team player.
BTW, Mayor Daley's former chief of staff, Valerie Jarrett, hired Obama's wife, Michelle, to work in Chicago City Hall. Jarret is now ensconced in Washington, as Obama's chief policy advisor.
In Chicago gangland vernacular, "chief policy advisor" means "wire-transfer artist".
Mayor Emanuel's innovative ways commenced early on---his organization was getting $50G's for the best seats at the inauguration (mmmm........that accounts for another couple million scammed from Treasury).
The mayoralty (and its--cough--"benefits") is a job Emanuel has coveted since he was a machine go-fer back in the 1980s.....before he became Bill Clinton's national campaign finance chairman and then a dual role as senior White House aide and Goldman Sachs lobbyist and then (gasp) becoming a multi-millionaire, thanks to a measly few months at a local investment firm...then a (gag) Congressman for four terms---then White House chief of staff for Obama that helped create the 2010 Republican House landslide.
SOURCE http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/05/rahm-emanuel-new-chicago-mayor-tim-geithner.html
"I gotta get outta here. Valerie just wired $50 million federal bucks to the
Chicago Sewer Authority account. I gotta create backdated invoices and line
item payments to phantom employees on the Chicago payroll so Obama's
slush fund will be fattened up when he retires."
If you have a 15 year old child at home, maybe you shouldn’t steal?!
I wonder if Blago ever got a decent haircut in prison.
LOL——must be a regulation cut for all prisoners, no?
The inmates are gonna love having her behind bars.
Are you saying she is “Reverend” Wright’s daughter?
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