Apr 17, 2006 11:03 pm US/Central
George Ryan Guilty On All Counts
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A federal jury in Chicago has found former Gov. George Ryan and businessman Larry Warner guilty on all charges after a five-month trial in federal court.
A racketeering conspiracy charge included in the indictment carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Sentencing will be set on Aug. 4.
Ryan, 72, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read and afterward vowed to appeal.
"I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of public service that I provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years, and needless to say I am disappointed in the outcome," Ryan said, declining to comment further.
CBS 2's Mike Flannery asked Ryan what his next step would be. Ryan replied, "I'm going to go see my wife."
Ryan, flanked by his wife, Lura Lynn, and other family members, was also grim as he left court. At least one bystander heckled the former governor as he left the building.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick M. Collins, the lead prosecutor throughout the federal investigation that ensnared Ryan, said he hoped the verdict would motivate public officials to carry out the jobs for which they were elected and not cater to other interests.
"Whether you're the dog catcher or the governor, you're elected for something to do work for the citizens of the district, and the day you want to work for yourself or your family is the day you ought to go into the private sector," Collins said.
He added: "Unless and until the state learns, the city, this county, the state learns that there are victims of corruption, there are tangible consequences of corruption; unless and until people who vote understand that there are important consequences when public officials take acts of dishonesty, this system will not change."
Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant said he hoped the verdict would begin "the end of political prostitution that seems to have been evident in the state of Illinois and (begin) the resurrection of honest government services in this state that so many people have demanded."
"In this country, in this democracy, no one is above the law," he said.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called Ryan's conduct as governor and secretary of state "a low water mark of public service."
Meanwhile, Ryan's lead attorney, former federal prosecutor Dan K. Webb, said the defense team would "begin working immediately on post-trial motions to try to get this verdict overturned."
Ryan faces up to 20 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy charge alone, the most serious against him in the indictment. The jury found him guilty of all 18 counts, including fraud, obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and lying to the FBI.
Co-defendant Larry Warner, a Chicago businessman and Ryan friend, was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, attempted extortion, illegally structuring bank withdrawals and money laundering.
Ryan, long one of the most powerful Republicans in Illinois, faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on the racketeering conspiracy count alone but most likely will receive a much lighter sentence. Sentencing for both men is scheduled for Aug. 4.
Prosecutors want Ryan and Warner to forfeit a total of $3 million, the amount prosecutors estimate Warner received through state leases and contracts Ryan steered to him.
Pallmeyer will rule on the forfeiture portion of the case later.
Following Monday's guilty verdict, defense attorney Webb outlined plans for an appeal to the verdict.
"I can tell you right now that on behalf of Governor Ryan I am very disappointed in the verdict. We have believed throughout this case that the government simply did not prove these charges against George Ryan beyond a reasonable doubt," Webb said.
"We're going to begin working immediately on post-trial motions to get this verdict overturned. If that's not successful, I can promise you that we will file an appeal in order to get the verdict overturned," he said.
Webb zeroed in on Pallmeyer's decision to replace two jurors with alternates eight days into deliberations as an "unusual situation" that could undermine the conviction on appeal.
One of the dismissed jurors said the outcome likely would have been different had she remained on the jury. She said some jurors seemed dead-set for conviction from the start.
"I don't feel that the jurors were fair and impartial when you go into deliberations saying things like, 'If the rest of his cronies are guilty and they can go to jail, why can't he?' I mean, things like that were said," said Evelyn Ezell of Chicago.
The two original jurors who were dropped were found to have omitted mention of their arrest records on questionnaires that the jury filled out last September.
The jury deliberated for 10 days before returning its verdict, ending the state's biggest political corruption trial in decades.
Inside the courtroom, CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports Ryan and Warner did not move or show emotion when U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer read the guilty verdict.
There was tension and anxiety as the defendants, their attorneys and prosecutors waited more than an hour to hear the jury's verdict.
Former Gov. George Ryan showed the same business-like demeanor ever day that he entered the Dirksen Federal Building and his reaction in the courtroom was no different.
Warner sat on the edge of his seat; Ryan, at a table. Where people were seated, Ryan's son, Homer, massaged his mother's back.
Ryan stared at the jury box as each juror was asked about the verdict. Most of the jurors kept their eyes on the judge, not on Ryan or co-defendant Larry Warner.
Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer read the verdicts swiftly.
Ryan and Warner did not move or change their facial expressions, as witnessed and drawn by CBS 2 Courtroom Artist Marcia Danits.
"It's the same expression he showed every day. No emotion. None. Nobody truly reacted that much," she said.
Ryan's wife, Lura Lynn, trembled a bit but did not cry. Family members hugged and kissed her. Then George Ryan whispered to his wife and kissed her before turning to meet with his lawyers and thanked some supporters. Her children also kissed her after the jury left the courtroom, Lum reports.
"The son put his arm around his mother. The children have been close and attentive to them," Danits observed.
Ryan was charged with running state government for the profit of his friends, family and himself, and with trying to cover up a bribes-for-licenses scandal that ultimately led to his indictment.
The decision came on the jury's second attempt to reach a verdict. Pallmeyer dismissed two jurors for allegedly lying about their criminal records. The judge denied the defense's request for a mistrial.
After adding two alternates to the panel on March 28, Pallmeyer instructed the six women and six men to start over as though two weeks of deliberations had never occurred. The initial jury began deliberating on March 13.
The trial, which included testimony from 77 witnesses, lasted 23 weeks.
The indictment alleged that for more than a decade, as secretary of state and then governor, Ryan took payoffs, gifts and vacations in return for letting associates profit from steering government contracts and leases. He was charged with racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, making false statements to investigators, tax fraud and filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors alleged that Ryan gave lobbyist and co-defendant Warner all but free reign to see that leases and contracts in the secretary of state's office went to Warner's clients and that cash collected from state vendors and landlords was then funneled back to Ryan.
Warner was charged with racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, extortion and making illegal financial transactions.
Defense attorney Dan Webb has said all along that there was no proof that Ryan ever took bribes. Ryan, who was a dedicated public servant and a humble former pharmacist, had no savings and couldn't even afford to re-decorate his Kankakee home, Webb said.
The defense claimed the contracts and leases Ryan approved were good for taxpayers and the trips and cash he received were simply gifts.
Ryan, 72, a Republican known worldwide as a leading critic of the death penalty, gradually became the focus of the corruption investigation that began even before his 1998 election as governor. The growing scandal was a factor in Ryan's 2001 decision not to seek a second term.
The charges grew out of the federal government's Operation Safe Road, which initially focused on bribes exchanged for drivers licenses but over seven years expanded into a full-blown investigation of political corruption when Ryan was secretary of state and later governor.
In November 1994, a Wisconsin expressway fiery accident killed six children of the Rev. Scott and Janet Willis. The accident has been blamed on a truck driver whose license may have been obtained with payoff money from a woman raising Ryan campaign funds.
That incident touched off the federal license for bribes probe that eventually led to Ryan's indictment.
Ryan's campaign committee has been found guilty of racketeering along with his former campaign manager and chief of staff, Scott Fawell, who is now serving a 6 1/2-year sentence.
Ryan, an old-school politician, was elected to five terms in the state House before serving two four-year terms as secretary of state beginning in 1990.
He was elected governor in 1998, but retired after just one term as the so-called licenses-for-bribes scandal grew.
While his popularity plummeted in his home state, Ryan was winning widespread praise nationally and internationally as a leading critic of capital punishment.
Ryan declared a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois after it was discovered that 13 wrongfully convicted men had been sent to death row.
In January 2003, just before leaving office, he pardoned four condemned prisoners and commuted the death sentences of 167 others to life in prison.
Critics accused Ryan of using the death penalty issue to deflect the scandal arising from the disclosures of corruption. Supporters nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ryan is the third Illinois governor indicted in the past 40 years. Otto Kerner, who served from 1961-1968, was convicted of bribery. Dan Walker, who served from 1973-1977, was convicted on charges related to financial dealings after he left office.
Racketeering is punishable by up to 20 years in prison; mail fraud and making false statements to authorities are punishable by up to 5 years in prison; tax fraud and filing a false tax return are punishable by up to 3 years in prison.
Ryan is married to his childhood sweetheart, Lura Lynn Ryan. They are the parents to six children, five daughters and one son. They have 13 grandchildren.
Video Library:
Tragic Crash, Whistleblower Set Ryan Investigation In Motion Ryan's Legal Road Is Far From Over After Verdict Dismissed Juror Said Jury Was Not Fair Or Impartial Ryan Trial Jury Has No Regrets About Verdict Suburban Woman Talks About Her Connection To George Ryan Dismissed Juror Says She Could Have Changed Ryan Trial Outcome Ryan, Warner Show Little Emotion During Verdict Ryan Defense Team Promises Appeal After Guilty Verdict Family Of 6 Children Killed In Fiery Crash Emotional About Verdict After Sentencing, What's Next For Former Gov. George Ryan? While Ryan Verdict Shocking To Some, Others Said It Was Expected Glimpse Inside The Minds Of The Jurors Who Decided Ryan's Fate A Sweeping, Surprise Verdict In The George Ryan Corruption Trial U.S. Atty. Fitzgerald And Prosecutor Collins Discuss Verdict Jurors Discuss Reaching The Ryan Verdict About The Ryan Jurors And What They Said Courtroom Sketches Capture Expressions Of Ryan, Jury Comments From The Ryan Trial Foreperson Little Emotion When Ryan Trial Guilty Verdict Announced Former Gov. Ryan Says He Will Appeal Guilty Verdict Ryan Sentencing Date Set For August Former Gov. Ryan Guilty On All Counts Willis Family Watches Closely For Ryan Verdict Waiting For The Ryan Verdict In The Courtroom Jon Duncanson On Gov. Ryan's Remarks About The Trial How Are The Jurors Dressed For The Verdict? Ryan And His Wife Enter Courtroom Ryan Trial Verdict Was A Long Time Coming Former Gov. Ryan Arrives At Courthouse A Look At The Jury Deciding Fate Of Ryan, Warner Recap Of Charges Against Former Gov. George Ryan Mike Flannery On Waiting For The Ryan Verdict Breaking News: Jury Reaches Verdict In Ryan Trial
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
