Jul 19, 2007 6:24 am US/Central
Ex-Ald. Troutman Pleads Not Guilty To New Charges
Afterward, Troutman Joins Former Ald. Coleman To Complain About Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Former Ald. Arenda Troutman (File)
CBS
Former alderman Arenda Troutman pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the latest batch of federal charges against her.
The indictment accused Troutman of 13 counts of extortion, bribery, mail fraud and income tax evasion.
She originally was charged with one count of bribery for allegedly taking $10,000 in payoffs from a developer who also was working as an FBI mole. She has pleaded not guilty.
The latest federal indictment, released a week ago, adds allegations of multiple shakedowns between 2002 and 2007. Troutman is accused of using a corporation called the "20th Ward Women's Auxiliary" to conceal the payoffs.
The indictment alleges that Troutman used her position on the City Council to obtain "payments and other things of value from persons who were involved in real estate work, with the implicit and explicit understanding that, without such payments and other things of value, her support for land use requests, zoning changes, alley access, sale of City-owned real estate ... would either not be forthcoming or would be delayed."
Steven Boone, a former Troutman aide, and Vincent Gilbert, her former political adviser, also were charged in the new indictment. Boone faces four counts of bribery, mail fraud, and lying to the FBI, and Gilbert was charged with one count of extortion.
After court Wednesday, Troutman and another former alderman attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the city's South Side into a shouting match.
The ceremony was for a new Kennedy-King College campus in the Englewood neighborhood. A man at the podium former aldermen were invited.
But Troutman and Shirley Coleman claim they were not invited to the new facility – a project which they both helped create.
"I know that alderman Coleman and myself were responsible for the minority participation and community participation, and it's just a travesty that we weren't included," Troutman said.
Troutman lost her race for reelection for alderman of the 20th Ward to Willie Cochran last February. Coleman lost a runoff election to Joann Thompson for 16th Ward alderman in April.
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