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Vrdolyak's Probation Sentence Generates Backlash

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Feb 27, 2009 5:54 pm US/Central

Vrdolyak's Probation Sentence Generates Backlash

Reporting
Mike Parker

CHICAGO (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Ed Vrdolyak (file)
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One Chicago alderman collected thousands of dollars in kickbacks. Another schemed to split a million and a half dollar payoff.

But when Arenda Troutman and Ed Vrdolyak went to court, their sentences were dramatically different. While Troutman got jail time, Vrdolyak got no time.

CBS 2's Mike Parker says that's fueling a sometimes fiery debate.

Vrdolyak's sentence this week of five years' probation for taking part in a crooked land deal has not gone down well with everybody. Tribune columnist John Kass said the judge kissed Vrdolyak's hand. Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown called the judge's decision "almost indefensible."

And then there's Mark Allen, the associate editor of the African-American community's South Street Journal.

"It just looked weird because I was starting to wonder, was the judge the judge? Or was the judge his attorney?" Allen asked.

U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who allowed Vrdolyak his freedom, did so, he said, because the former alderman didn't actually pocket the $1.5 million he and fixer Stuart Levine had schemed to get and because of Vrdolyak's years of public service.

Allen points to the four-year sentence given to former Ald. Arenda Troutman by Judge Ruben Castillo. Troutman collected $21,000 in kickbacks.

"It just appears like there is a white standard and a black standard," Allen said.

Vrdolyak is not joining the argument. Nobody answered the door at his home in the sprawling, rusting, post-industrial 10th Ward on Friday. But it was not hard to find others who had things to say.

"He always helped the community, always. He got what we ain't getting now," 10th Ward resident John Mirabelli said at the American Legion Post 220.

"He didn't walk in as a politician -- he walked in as a friend," Danny Rodman said.

Still, the Vrdolyak ovation was not unanimous.

"He got off on probation, and I don't think that was right because he said he was guilty," Ed Koblack said.

Critics of the Vrdolyak sentence still have hope. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is suggesting his office will appeal it.

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