Charles Flowers arrested

Daily Southtown (Duaa ElDeib):

Regional Supt. Charles Flowers was charged today with theft by the Cook County state's attorney's office....

Flowers turned himself in about 1 p.m. to sheriff's police in Maywood. He was accompanied by his attorney, Tim Grace.

I linked to ElDeib's article first because he's been the most vigilant about covering Flowers at the Regional Office of Education.

The following media outlets also have coverage:

Chicago Breaking News Center (Matthew Walberg)
WBBM 780 AM
Chicago Public Radio (links to an interview with Flowers)

What to say?

Having dealt with Flowers and his staff, I can attest to the office being run in an unprofessional manner.

I did a small amount of work for the ROE making video recordings of meetings. While Flowers and his staff were accustomed to manufacturing thin excuses to eat and drink on the office credit card, it was difficult to get them to pay me relatively small amounts of money for recording meetings.

On one occasion I arrived to record a meeting which necessitated leaving another job early. I arrive to complaints from various people, including Flowers. I was accused of not returning phone calls. Apparently, one of Flowers' assistants had given him the wrong number for me.

Members of Flowers' staff claim the office has never had sufficient resources to fulfill its mandates without either going in to debt or getting subsidies from the Cook County Board. This is probably true, however, mismanagement and misprioritized spending were a problem.

Based on what I saw of putting meals on the credit card and an attempt to put a bar tab on the credit card, it seems credible that Flowers and his people got sloppy and crossed the line and spent taxpayer money on stuff that was clearly personal expenses.

Flowers has been abyssmal at handling the media. He has avoided taking questions from Duaa ElDeib and in one instance Flowers' sister called and left a snotty voicemail.

Alvarez and Peraica spar at Union League Club

Today at 8:00 AM Democratic and Republican candidates for Cook County State’s Attorney (CCSA) debated for an hour at the Union League Club. Afterwards both Anita Alvarez (Democrat-River Forest) and Cook County Commissioner Anthony Peraica (Republican-Riverside) appeared separately before the media in attendance. The forum was also hosted by Comcast which will broadcast (narrowcast) video of the forum Thursdays at 9 PM.

The debate questions were chosen by a moderator from questions submitted by the audience. The audience at the Union League Club appeared to over represent affluent “White” males. There were few African-Americans besides the journalists and people who did not meet the club’s dress code were excluded, per club policy.

Peraica emphasized corruption as a problem facing Cook County and said that the two systems of justice administered by the CCSA protects the corrupt from being prosecuted. There is one system of justice for the connected and the elite and another system of justice for everyone else. He promised to "audit the book, lock up the crooks" only once. He referred to Cook County as "Crook County" a few times.

Alvarez was less focused in her message. She asserted that she was qualified for the job and that the main change needed is for the CCSA to listen to communities more. Alvarez has been a Cook County assistant state's attorney for 22 years since graduating from Chicago-Kent Law School. In a restrained manner she drew attention to being a woman and being a Democrat.

Both candidates took jabs at each other. Peraica damned Alvarez as someone who didn't take risks in an organization that turned a blind eye to corruption. He described her as the candidate chosen by the political bosses who want the CCSA to remain ineffective at investigating and prosecuting corruption. Alvarez said Peraica was a "career politician" who ran for various offices. His legal experience is as a defense attorney, not a prosecutor. And she linked Peraica to problems on the county board, especially the board failing to provide adequate resources.

Peraica made four specific proposals that seemed noteworthy.

1. Peraica would eliminate prosecution of simple drug use and possession in favor of treatment and other options.

2. Peraica committed to cutting the CCSA budget by 2 ½ % per year for four years for a 10% decrease in his first term. He said cuts could be to high-salary managers who are politically connected and do little work. He also questioned if it made sense to have three ASAs in court for every felony case.

3. Peraica would not oppose ASAs organizing a union. Illinois Supreme Court rulings have held that a state’s attorney has a right to have a direct relationship with his/her ASAs without having the relationship mediated by a union. Peraica said the reason Dick Devine, the current CCSA, and Alvarez oppose unionizing is that they do want to continue to hire politically connected ASAs.

4. Peraica would offer house arrest monitored by ankle bracelet as an alternative to housing people at Cook County jail for people willing to pay for this option. This would both save Cook County the cost of incarceration and generate revenue. He used the example of a businessman convicted of DUI paying $200 per day instead of costing county government $100 per day.

Alvarez called for two specific changes.

She proposed creating CCSA satellite offices around Cook County, perhaps with facilities donated by municipal government or from the private sector. She contends having more offices would make the CCSA more responsive to community needs.

Alvarez also wants the Illinois legislature to pass a law that requires firearm owners to report lost or stolen firearms in 72 hours. She alleges that when law enforcement tracks the chain of ownership for firearms used in crimes there’s often an owner that had the firearm “stolen” but didn’t report it. She contends that this is how straw-man buyers transfer firearms from the legal market to the criminal market.

When asked about gun violence Peraica chose to speak about his plan for reducing the number of people incarcerated by not prosecuting simple drug use and possession.

Both Peraica and Alvarez favored the death penalty when asked how they would determine when to apply it. Alvarez would keep the existing committee system in place to decide whether to seek the death penalty. She said, “We seek the death penalty less than people think [we do].” Peraica said whether to have the death penalty or not was matter for the legislature to decide. He said he’d reserve it for the most heinous cases like five women killed in February in Tinley Park.

Alvarez and Peraica sparred over the size of the budget. Peraica characterized the CCSA budget as being $136 million per year. Alvarez rebutted this and said the budget was $90 million in the debate and $96 million in the press conference. Peraica’s figure included grant money. Alvarez’s figure was just the money allocated by the county board.

When questioned about using electronic devices to monitor sex offenders who have served their criminal sentences, Alvarez said she was open to the idea if it passed constitutional muster. Peraica expressed his doubt that imposing conditions after a criminal sentence was completed was constitutional and expressed little interest in the idea.

While no one in the audience asked about the demographics at the CCSA, Peraica did raise the issue in a question about reducing the number of cases overturned on appeal. Peraica told the audience only 6% of ASAs are African-American. This was an issue raised by Alvarez's African-American opponents in the Democratic primary, especially Ald. Howard Brookins.

IMO, the issue of hiring is one that the media people want to get the facts. Peraica repeated the allegation that the CCSA has a number of ASAs who were hired because of political connections, not an impartial evaluation of their legal talents. Alvarez denied this. Part of her denial was that every ASA had to graduate from law school. But she was more specific in the media session. Alvarez said she was the third round interviewer for every ASA and she said, "I don't think there is [hiring of relatives of the politically connected]." The media asked Peraica to provide examples of ASAs who were relatives of politicians. Peraica named Brookins and a name I didn't recognize. Both were hired a long time ago. Peraica also said people should visit JoinPeraica.com to find a list of Cook County employees.

If Peraica can show that Alvarez has hired multiple politically connected attorneys to be ASAs, she'll look clueless or dishonest. If Peraica can't show that the CCSA has been hiring the politically connected in the recent past, he's going to look like someone who always screams about corruption and either exaggerates the problem or he's clueless about how the corruption really works.

Thomas O'Brien is the Green Party candidate for Cook County State's Attorney. He did not participate in the debate or media availability. Although Peraica referenced O'Brien as being one of the high-paid, do-little managers working for the CCSA. Peraica alleged the Democrats want O'Brien, who continues to work as an ASA, in the race to siphon reform votes away from Peraica.

[UPDATE: I added a bunch of text Tuesday at 3:42 PM. And here are some of the traditional media outlets: Chicago Public Radio, Sun-Times (Abdon M. Pallasch), ABC7, and Chicago Tribune (Monique Garcia).]

will Cook County State's Attorney investigate Yarbrough and Vicenik?

Here's my take on the Yarbrough-Vicenik-Davis Broadview office issue. It seems clear that Karen Yarbrough violated the provision of Illinois law that prohibits using government resources for political activities. Broadview Mayor Henry Vicenik and U.S. Representative Danny K. Davis have pretty implausible claims of ignorance.

It also seems likely that Yarbrough/Davis staffer Larry Shapiro played a role in organizing the implementing the illegal scheme.

Question: will the Cook County State's Attorney (or Illinois Attorney General) enforce the law?

I'm also curious how Cook County Clerk David Orr reacts to Yarbrough and Vicenik invoking his name as blessing the illegal arrangement. Orr was asked if the division of the state representative office and the political office was sufficiently clear that it was OK to have both offices in the same building. Orr gave the OK to the division. But I am all but 100% certain Orr was kept in the dark on the one important detail: the whole building was owned by the Village of Broadview.

So when Yarbrough and Vicenik invoke Orr as saying the arrangement was OK they are trying to confuse. Orr said the division between politics and constituent service was sufficiently clear to have two separate leases assuming a private owner of the premises.

I hope Orr registers the appropriate amount of anger at Yarbrough and Vicenik and requests the Cook County State's Attorney investigate and prosecute if a violation of Illinois law has occurred.

It will be a good chance for Anita Alvarez, the Democratic nominee for Cook County State's Attorney and the third ranking person in the Devine administration, to show that the office can investigate and prosecute crimes by people with some local political clout.

congrats to Anita Alvarez

Last I saw the TV stations had declared Anita Alvarez the victor in the Democratic Primary for Cook County State's Attorney.

Alvarez lives in Old Proviso (aka River Forest).

PTDO hosts State's Attorney forum for Dems

Last Thursday night, Proviso Township Democratic Organization hosted a forum for the seven Democrats running for State's Attorney. See video on Google.

Candidates:

• Alderman Tom Allen
• Anita Alvarez
• Tommy Brewer
• Alderman Howard Brookins, Jr.
  
• Clayton Harris, III
• Bob Milan
• Commissioner Larry Suffredin

The primary is February 5. Suffredin pointed out that this is the first election for Cook County State's Attorney since 1948 without an incumbent running.

Dem committeemen endorse Eugene Moore for re-election

Sun-Times (Abdon M. Pallasch):

Ald. Ed Smith took an odd approach in his attempt to oust incumbent Eugene Moore as Cook County recorder of deeds. Smith left town to represent Chicago at a National League of Cities event, leaving a surrogate to argue his case to the committeemen. They endorsed Moore for re-election.

No candidate got the nod for State's Attorney.

Comments?

Peraica has campaign kick-off tomorrow night

This weekend State's Attorney Dick Devine announced he will not run for re-election. See Sun-Times (Steve Patterson).

Cook County Commissioner Anthony Peraica (R-Riverside) will announce his candidacy tomorrow night. For information on Peraica's candidacy see his campaign website.

When? Tuesday, August 14, 6:00 PM
Where? Pescatore Palace, 3400 N. River Road, Franklin Park

The campaign wants $50 per person. Larger contributions are welcome.

• $1,000--activist
• $2,500--crimefighter
• $5,000--reformer

If I could mention one issue I have with Peraica's website.... The section with news articles reprints the whole articles. There are five links under "latest updates" slightly right of center on the main web page. The titles are:

• Big crowd of hopefuls already lining up shot at job
• Devine out, hopefuls rush in
• State's Atty Devine will not seek re-election
• Devine won't seek fourth term
• No cash for county

These are all reprints of entire articles from local newspapers. Copyright law prohibits reprinting entire articles without obtaining permission (which usually costs money) from the original publication. If you want more background on copyright law, see Wikipedia.

One is allowed to borrow small portions of the original article under the Fair Use Doctrine.

No politician should be making the mistake of using whole newspaper articles. But it's doubly embarrassing for Peraica since he's an attorney who is already an elected official and he's running to be the chief law enforcement officer for the county.

feds take Melrose little league investigation from state's attorney

Chicago Tribune (Joseph Sjostrom):

Information from a probe by the Cook County state's attorney's office into the loss of at least $42,000 from the Melrose Park Little League treasury has been turned over to federal authorities investigating official corruption in Melrose Park.

About $42,000 went missing when Lisa Zito was treasurer of the Melrose Park little league. Zito's husband was a police lieutenant. Lisa Zito claimed Terry Serpico, the brother of Village President Ron Serpico, was responsible for the missing money.

An FBI agent involved in investigating local stuff said that five more indictments will be announced in the next few weeks. I wonder if they will be connected the little league investigation.

BTW, I'm also wondering if the feds will be looking at the possibility Dick Devine's assistant state's attorneys deliberately did a shoddy job on the investigation as a political favor to power brokers within Melrose Park.