*** 1:32 pm *** Bob Sorich’s conviction was upheld today…
In a key win for federal prosecutors, an appellate court in Chicago on Tuesday upheld the convictions of four former top aides to Mayor Richard Daley [including former patronage chief Robert Sorich] who were convicted of rigging hiring and promotions at City Hall. […]
On appeal, lawyers for the former city aides argued that they could not be convicted of criminal fraud because they took no bribes or kickbacks in the scheme. But a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
This has got to send a chill down the governor’s spine. There are several tracks to the federal investigation, and Rezko is just one of them. Hiring practices are another.
*** 1:51 pm *** Read the opinion by clicking here.
The centerpiece of their appeal is a challenge to the government’s theory of prosecution: they contend that their behavior, while dubious, is not criminal, and that the honest services mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, is unconstitutionally vague. We conclude that the defendants’
actions do constitute mail fraud, and that the statute is not unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of this case. The defendants also argue that they did not deprive the city or the people of Chicago of any money or property, but the jobs that they wrongfully gave away were indeed a kind of property, so we reject this argument. Individual defendants also challenge the sufficiency of the indictment, the connection to the mails, and the sufficiency of the evidence against them, while one defendant argues that he was entitled to a sentencing
adjustment for playing a minor role.
Finding none of these arguments persuasive, we affirm on all counts.