Nov 20, 2006 9:56 pm US/Central
3 Years, 10 Months For Former Top Daley Aide
Robert Sorich Was Convicted In Hiring Scheme
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley, Kristyn Hartman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
One of the highest-ranking members of the Daley administration will spend 3 years and 10 months in prison for his part in a scheme to load the city payroll with campaign workers.
Robert Sorich,
Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief, showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge David H. Coar delivered a harsh tongue-lashing.
"The offense is corruption -- corruption with a capital C," Coar said. "For people to owe their jobs to political advancement rather than performance on the job stinks.
"I don't give a hoot whether this been going on for 200 years. It still stinks."
After sentencing Sorich, Coar turned to his co-defendants.
Timothy McCarthy, 35, a former personnel director in the city Department of Aviation and a one-time Sorich aide, was sentenced to 18 months. Coar said he gave McCarthy a break because he had provided prosecutors with important information.
Prosecutors argued that Sorich and his co-defendants gave jobs and promotions particularly to candidates with resumes that included Democratic Party campaign work.
Sorich was convicted of two counts of mail fraud, but acquitted of two other counts.
The others convicted included McCarthy, 35, who was convicted of two counts of mail fraud,
Patrick Slattery, 42, a former official of the department of streets and sanitation, who was convicted of one mail fraud count, and
John Sullivan, 38, who was convicted of one count of lying to an FBI agent and acquitted of another count of lying.
Coar sentenced Sorich at the bottom of the guideline range of 46 to 57 months, saying "good people sometimes do bad things."
Even so, defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin told reporters after court it was unfair that Sorich was "sentenced as if he were public enemy No.1"
After the sentencing, some of those in the audience wept openly while others threw their arms around Sorich to show support.
Sorich took the sentencing calmly and apologized for nothing.
"I stand before the court and my friends and family to let them know that I am not a broken man," Sorich said. "As I stand before them I am a lucky man because I have their support. I have tried to do my best and I have tried to be fair."
Plainly many of those on hand, far from viewing Sorich as a criminal, consider him a martyr to the cause of Chicago's time-honored patronage system in which those who help the mayor get elected get the city jobs.
Sorich and his lawyers believe the feds overreached, turning what had been a civil violation -- political hiring --- into a criminal offense.
"I think chasing after Mayor Daley on patronage hiring on some novel theory is a witch hunt," Durkin said.
But the feds won't talk about an ultimate target, only the next step.
"As far as going up the food chain, we're going wherever the evidence takes us," said Asst. U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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