By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Dominick Pelletier was not expecting prison time when he went looking for a job at the FBI. But he got it. The 34-year-old suburban Chicago resident applied with the bureau as an intelligence analyst in August of 2008, according to the Daily Herald, but after taking a routine polygraph test he…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The highest-ranking leader in the United States of the notorious street gang the Latin Kings was sentenced in Chicago to 60 years in federal prison on Wednesday, according to a statement from the FBI. Augustin Zambrano, 51, was given the statutory maximum. He was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other charges…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Would you believe that federal money was wasted in Illinois’ Cook County, home of the city of Chicago? A report by the Department of Homeland Security claims that millions of dollars may have been wasted on a troubled $44 million county program that put faulty cameras in police cars, reports…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Ok, so I wouldn’t have given ex-Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich 14 years in prison for his infinite arrogance and his corrupt ways. Ten or 12 would have sufficed. That being said, I can’t say he didn’t deserve getting the toughest sentence of any crooked Illinois governor. He never stopped yapping and…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday socked Rod Blagojevich, the ever-chatty ex-Illinois Governor, with a 14-year prison term, just one year short of the minimum the prosecution had recommended, according to the Chicago Tribune. He is now scheduled to report to prison Feb. 16. “The vast majority of facts…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday faced the first of two days of hearings for his sentencing on public corruption charges. The usually chatty ex-governor had walked quietly out of his home earlier in the morning and into the courtroom via a passage blocked off to the media he once revelled in, a…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com In political corruption cases, how much prison time is enough? Fed prosecutors in the case of Rod Blagojevich — the world’s most talkative ex-governor — are recommending that he get 15 to 20 years at sentencing, which is set for Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Yes, Blagojevich was a…
By Danny Fenster ticklethwire.com A top fundraiser and advisor to ex-Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich got handed a stiff sentence Tuesday in Chicago federal court for extorting millions of dollars in exchange for regulatory approval or business. Fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison — a sentence that prompted Rezko’s daughter to…
