Operation Greylord
Page 31
This was the most extensive undercover campaign in American history, but that was only because we were making up for the failure of our law schools and attorney disciplinary boards to deal with realities. Removing the malignancy should not start with recruiting moles. It needs to begin with realizing the special stresses and drives of attorneys engaged in criminal law. It comes as no surprise that several studies have shown that lawyers have the highest depression rate in the country.
Judges should be allowed to be judges and not politicians, who run for election on a party ticket and whose campaigns are run by the attorneys who appear before them. And monitoring agencies should act more quickly on reports of court improprieties.
Shortly before the Maloney conviction, I appeared before an Illinois Supreme Court commission on the Cook County court system. No one was fooling himself that Greylord had turned Chicago honest. I said that of the three hundred and twenty-five judges in the system, insiders such as bagman Harold Conn and others identified eighty-five as being corrupt, but there had to be more. I was then asked by a central illinois appellate justice what percentage of the judges in Cook County of thought were corrupt. I testified that perhaps fifty percent of judges at the time were on the take. Maybe not continually, as Olson had been, but they grabbed cash whenever the amount and the circumstances were right. A judge panelist whispered to someone that she had heard the number was only forty percent. Only!
A lot of this book has been about the downside of our work, but it had some rewards. The Loyola University Chicago School of Law honored me for contributions to the community. The Chicago Council of Lawyers gave former judge Lockwood and me awards, and well-known defense attorney David Schippers, who had represented a lawyer convicted of bribing Judge Sodini, sent me a letter of praise for my contributions to the profession. Former U.S. Attorney Webb, a leader in the Cook County Republican Party, even asked me to run for State’s Attorney. But I felt incumbent Democrat Richard M. Daley was doing a good job and chose not to accept.
One year after Aleman’s sentencing, Scott Lassar—the tall, slender, and determined prosecutor who had seen Greylord’s creation—was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois. He told reporters he must have won the appointment by “dumb luck,” typical Lassar humor.
Operation Greylord may have been just the start of a new era in monitoring the judiciary. In Chicago alone, its methods were expanded for staggering sweeps against bribery in several city departments as well as ghost payrolling and insider trading. But the struggle should never let up. Let us not say, as nineteenth-century English poet Josiah Holland did, that “Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps.”
Epilogue
I ultimately testified at the trials of 23 Greylord defendants from 1984 through 1993. In 2008, I testified before an Illinois Supreme Court Commission when attorney Bruce Roth, who had received 10 years in prison, petitioned to reinstate his law license. The Illinois Supreme Court denied Roth’s petition in 2009. In fact, not one Greylord defendant convicted of a bribery-related act has ever received his law license back.
My first job after leaving the FBI was as the Inspector General of the Regional Transportation Authority in Chicago. After five years, I decided to return to federal service and eventually became an agent with the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General’s Office, the next best thing to being an FBI agent. We conducted criminal and administrative investigations relating to various agencies of the Justice Department. I retired in 2008 and went to work for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, where I eventually headed the internal affairs department.
But I longed to work in the courts again. Would the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office want to hire a 63-year-old assistant prosecutor? Was the job I left to go undercover still open? When First Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Kirk and Chief Deputy Walt Hehner interviewed me in 2014, they praised what my role in Greylord did for the for the State’s Attorney’s Office and the criminal justice system in Cook County. After considering their recommendation, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez hired me.
So after over 32 years I am living the dream I had just out of law school. Currently, I am working in the Felony Review Unit, deciding whether to charge defendants with felonies or not.
Dan Reidy told me when I agreed to work undercover that I would never be able to practice law again in Cook County. He wasn’t wrong, but conditions have changed considerably. Many judges now on the bench went to law school or entered practice during the Greylord trials. They and their fellow attorneys absorbed the ethical lessons the Greylord team had fought so hard for. Bill Haddad, who served as an assistant prosecutor, a defense lawyer, and then a judge, told me that Greylord made an immediate difference in the courtrooms where Judges Murphy and Reynold used to sit. Many other criminal defense attorneys have thanked me and told me that the system has changed completely for the good. One lawyer recently told me that all criminal defense attorneys are now on a level playing field rather than competing against fixers, and judges are no longer extorting bribes.
Cathy retired from the State’s Attorney’s Office in 2013, after serving for over 28 years. Her last jury trial was my daughter Christine’s first. A mother and a daughter had never prosecuted a case together in Cook County, and they won a conviction in a felony theft case. Christine is still an assistant state’s attorney. Perhaps someday we can be father and daughter prosecutors before a jury. My daughter Elizabeth in the catering business, and my son Thomas is a high school lacrosse coach.
To this day, I speak to law enforcement personnel, law students, and attorneys about the ethical lessons learned from Greylord. During the past year I have appeared at law schools such as Harvard, Boston College, Loyola University in Chicago, the University of Chicago, the University of Arizona, the University of St. Thomas, and Northwestern. I’ve also given continuing legal education seminars to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association. I am an adjunct member of the faculty at the Inspector General Academy at the Federal law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, where I have taught programs about undercover work and public corruption.
This is the post-Greylord status of the major judges and lawyers who were investigated. (Source, in part, Chicago Lawyer Magazine.)
Name
Sentence
After Prison or Trial
Judge John Devine
15 years
Died in 1987 of cancer in prison in Springfield, MO
Judge John Laurie
Acquitted
Cook County Judge (Retired)
Judge Richard LeFevour
12 years
Insurance claims consultant, died in 1997
Judge Martin Hogan
10 years
Worked for the Safer Foundation, which places former prisoners in jobs
Judge P.J. McCormick
6 years
Dairy route salesman
Judge John Murphy
10 years
Retired
Judge Wayne Olson
12 years
Prison job: law librarian at the federal prison in Lexington, KY. Died in 1994 at age 63
Judge John Reynolds
12 years
Administrator at an orphanage
Judge Raymond Sodini
8 years
College criminal justice professor; died in 1993
Judge Thomas Maloney
16 years
The last Greylord defendant to be released from prison, at age 79
Judge Maurice Pompey
Not charged
Retired to Arizona
Mark Ciavelli
Immunity
Successful in real estate sales
Frank Cardoni
Probation
Moved out of Illinois
Harold Conn
6 years
Gofer for an attorney. Conn said that prison was no worse than being in the army
James Cos
tello
6 years
Living in Colorado
James LeFevour
2 years
Living in Florida
Bruce Roth
10 years
Worked construction
Peter Kessler
Probation
Successful businessman
Cyrus Yonan
1 year
Moved to Florida
The Investigative and Prosecuting Attorneys
Michael Ficaro, Scott Lassar, Dan Reidy, Charles Sklarsky, Sheldon Zenner, Thomas Sullivan, Dan Webb, and Anton Valukas are all partners at major law firms. In fact, Sklarsky, Sullivan, and Valukas practice at the same firm. Candace Fabri is a Cook County judge. Morton Friedman retired as general counsel of a State of Illinois agency. Bob Cooley is living in secret in another state. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas M. Durkin who, along with FBI Agent Steve Bowen, guided Gambat, the Cooley offshoot of Greylord, is now a federal judge in Chicago.
The Investigators
Lamar Jordan
Retired from the FBI and living in Texas
Bob Farmer
Retired from the FBI and living in Washington State
Bill Megary
Retired as Special Agent in Charge of Newark and living in Virginia
David Grossman
Retired as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Chicago and living in Chicago
David Victor Ries
Retired as Special Agent in Charge of Knoxville, TN and living in Virginia
Malcolm Bales
Left the FBI for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Texas, where he is now the U.S. Attorney
David Benscoter
After leading the team of agents on the Judge Sodini indictment, which had 22 defendants, he left the FBI and retired as an IRS Criminal Agent in Spokane
Acknowledgments
I want to thank all of the Assistant State’s Attorneys who cooperated in the corruption probe. Some of them bravely testified against Greylord judges when the legal community did not look favorably upon that. The ones whom I recall are Barry Gross, Thomas Burnham, Harry Wilson, Larry Finder, Kathleen Nathan, Jonathan Regunberg, Marilyn Koch, Randy Barnett, Joel from the shoplifting court and Bruce Paynter. Former FBI Supervisor Mike Dyer was very supportive of me during the trials and guided my career after I left the FBI. Former FBI Assistant Director William Beane was instrumental in me receiving the Lou Peters Award, the most distinguished award given by the Former FBI Agents Association, together with the FBI. I thank my former office partner, James Reichardt, who not only gave me an office while I was undercover, but has provided me with friendship and support over the years. Former Dean Nina Appel of Loyola Law School was the person who turned the tide in the legal community as far as the community’s acceptance of Greylord. Nina understood the importance of the Greylord legal ethics issues for students and lawyers and I still speak to her classes. More recently, Professor Henry Shea of the University of St. Thomas and the University of Arizona Law Schools has recognized the significance of Greylord to legal ethics nationally. Hank has arranged for me speak at a number of law schools throughout the country. Terry Kinney and Steve Kessler of the U.S. Department of Justice recognized Greylord’s international investigative and ethical importance and invited me to speak in Indonesia in 2014. I especially want to thank my attorney and agent Jay B. Ross for placing this book with Ankerwycke Publishing. Toby Roberts and Nancy Stuenkel of the Chicago Sun Times went out of their way in finding some of the photographs for this book. Finally, I am also grateful to the team at Ankerwycke, especially editors Jonathan Malysiak and Erin Nevius, who greatly improved the book.
The Cook County Courthouse at 2600 S. California. Courtesy of Terrence Hake.
Terrence Hake, while testifying. © Chicago Sun-Times.
James Costello, hallway hustler and Hake’s entry point into the Chicago courts’ bribery and corruption. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Attorney Edward Genson (right) and Judge Wayne Olson (left), Narcotics Court Judge, who so widely accepted bribes that the FBI took the unprecedented step of bugging his chambers. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Harry Aleman (left), the mafia hit man whose acquittal was so egregious the federal government began investigating the Chicago courts. Aleman was eventually convicted in an unheard-of retrial—the first trial was proven to be fixed and therefore Aleman was not in jeopardy. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Lassar.
Cousin to bagman James, Judge Richard LeFevour packed the courts under his supervision with corrupt judges so he could get a cut of their bribes. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago FBI Chief Ed Hegarty (left) swears in Terrence Hake (right) as an FBI agent in the warehouse where the Greylord team gathered. The swearing in was held quickly and casually in case Hake needed to reveal himself as an FBI agent while undercover, as judges and lawyers became more and more nervous about the rumored government mole. Courtesy of Terrence Hake.
Bagman Harold Conn (left), deputy court clerk who passed bribes on to judges, sometimes publically. Conn’s attorney Sheldon Sorosky is pictured on the right; Sorosky would go on to defend Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich in Blagojevich’s 2010-2011 federal corruption trials. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Judge John “Dollars” Devine, who openly used bribery to run Auto Theft Court. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Judge Ray Sodini, famous for once having a policeman replace him on the bench while he was home with a hangover. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Judge Thomas Maloney, the first American judge ever convicted of fixing murder cases. © Chicago Sun-Times.
Charles Sklarsky today; Sklarsky was one of the architects of Operation Greylord and the first person to contact Terrence Hake about the investigation. He tried Judge “Dollars” Devine and continues to practice law in Chicago today. Courtesy Charles Sklarsky.
Daniel Reidy the lead Assistant United States Attorney on the Greylord Project. Later became First Assistant United State’s Attorney. He was one of the prosecutors in the trial of Judge LeFevour, the most important of the Greylord Trials, along with U.S. Attorney Dan Webb and Assistant United State’s Attoreny Candace Fabri.
Terrence Hake today; Hake has come full-circle in his career and is again an Assistant State’s Attorney in Illinois. Courtesy of Terrence Hake.
Cover design by Elmarie Jara/Ankerwycke.
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© 2015 Terrence Hake and Wayne Klatt. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission contact the ABA Copyrights & Contracts Department, copyright@americanbar.org, or complete the online form at http://www.americanbar.org/utility/reprint.html.
e-ISBN: 978-1-62722-920-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hake, Terrence.
Operation Greylord: the true story of an untrained undercover agent and America’s biggest corruption bust/Terrence Hake with Wayne Klatt.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Hake, Terrence. 2. Lawyers—Illinois—Chicago—Biography. 3. Judicial corruption—Illinois—Cook County. 4. Corruption investigation—Illinois—Cook County. 5. Undercover operations—Illinois—Cook County. I. Klatt, Wayne, author. II. Title.
KF373.H229A3 2015
&nbs
p; 364.1’3230977311—dc23
2015016224
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