“Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?”
Thirty-five years ago, former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan asked that question after a jury cleared him of all charges in a fraud prosecution.
Former prosecutor Joe Magats wonders the same thing today.
In 1981, only months after Donovan underwent a difficult Senate confirmation hearing featuring accusations of union payoffs and shady dealings, a special prosecutor was appointed to examine Donovan’s construction business and an allegation that he had received a payoff. After a six-month investigation, special prosecutor Leon Silverman found “insufficient credible evidence to warrant prosecution of Secretary Donovan on any charge.”
Read MoreEmotions exploded with the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., though to say it started there is to ignore history. Laquan McDonald brought it to the forefront. Only days ago, it was Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla., and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C.
Read MoreIn a federal courtroom filled with Chicago police officers, Elizabeth French — mother of slain Officer Ella French — recounted for a judge Wednesday how she went to a hospital to view her daughter’s body.
“My heart shattered. ... My lovely baby girl is lying on a table, still and silent in death. ... I am sobbing, ‘My baby girl, my baby girl,’ ” French said. “I hug her. I hold her face. ... I want her to wake up and start talking to me.”
French’s emotional testimony came moments before an Indiana man who admitted to straw-purchasing the handgun later used to kill Ella French and critically wound her partner last year was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
The sentence was half the five-year maximum Jamel Danzy could have received. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman noted Danzy is college educated and said he had no evidence Danzy knew where the gun he bought would wind up.
Even though many in the room were angry, Gettleman said the sentence had to be just.
Read MoreFormer Cook County commissioner and McCook Mayor Jeffrey Tobolski pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to conspiring with a local police official to extort a restaurant owner who needed permission to host events serving alcohol.
During the hearing before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, prosecutors announced that Tobolski is cooperating with the investigation and his assistance is ongoing. Tobolski is in line for a significant break on his sentence if he cooperates fully, prosecutors said.
Read MoreIn his opening statement, Jones’ lawyer, James Vanzant, urged the jury not to get distracted by the violent images. What mattered, he said, was that Jones and Schimenti were induced by the government into committing a crime.
“We’re not here to decide whether ISIS does terrible things. They do,” Vanzant said.
Read More“She got in over her head and she made a very, very bad decision,” defense attorney James Vanzant told the judge Tuesday. “And she’s paying for it today.”
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