For Eileen O’Neill Burke, locked in a fierce fight for the Democratic nomination for Cook County state’s attorney against Clayton Harris III, her last name has turned out to be a double-edged sword.
Ed Burke
Judge Virginia Kendall initially set his sentencing date for June 19 — which is also the Juneteenth holiday — but on Friday she pushed that date back to June 24.
The ban on Chicago police officers belonging to extremist groups takes effect Saturday. The U.S. Supreme Court took a pass on the latest challenge to Illinois’ assault weapons ban. And why it took decades to prove former Ald. Ed Burke's corruption and abuse of power.
“I’d like to think it will serve as a deterrent,” Elmhurst University professor Constance Mixon said. “But none of the other 37 convictions served as a deterrent. It ought to make people think twice. But I don’t know. I’d like to be optimistic.”
When former Chicago alderperson Ed Burke was convicted on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges, he became the latest Illinois politician and powerbroker to face accusations of corruption — but he’s far from the first in recent years.
Former Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) was convicted Thursday of 13 of 14 counts of racketeering, bribery and extortion, bringing his landmark corruption trial to an end with a verdict that delivered a searing indictment of Chicago’s political system, which Burke used to amass power for half a century.
The jury asked two questions on Tuesday and none on Wednesday. In all, they have deliberated for approximately 18 hours across three days and are set to resume Thursday morning.
The first communication from the jury came approximately an hour into deliberations on Tuesday and focused on one of the charges facing one of Ed Burke’s codefendants, businessman Charles Cui.
Deliberations began Monday afternoon after U.S. District Court Judge Virgina Kendall spent more than three hours reading more than 300 pages of jury instructions.
By contrast, Burke’s attorney portrayed the former alderperson as a “good man” and a dedicated public servant who relished his ability to move the city’s bureaucracy and “thrived on connecting the right people.”
Burke’s defense calls the government’s case ‘a bunch of noise’
Closing arguments continued Thursday in the high-profile corruption case of the longtime 14th Ward alderperson and Finance Committee chair, with prosecutors zeroing in on perhaps the most elaborate of four criminal schemes Burke is charged with.
Closing arguments began Wednesday, more than a month after proceedings began in Ed Burke’s landmark corruption case. Prosecutors painted the longtime 14th Ward alderperson as a “powerful and corrupt” politician who was motivated by greed to “get what he wanted for himself.”
As disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward) took the stand Tuesday afternoon in the landmark corruption trial of his former friend and colleague, who ruled City Hall with an iron fist for decades, Burke’s squad of attorneys will now get their chance to make their case that he is not a criminal, but an “old school, hardworking public servant.”
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case-in-chief on Tuesday, setting the stage for disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward) to be called to the stand to testify in the landmark corruption trial of his former friend and colleague.
Prosecutors capped their case revolving around the Burger King near 41st Street and Pulaski Road by playing a recorded call between ex-Ald. Ed Burke and former mayoral candidate Gery Chico from June 2017.
Architect Warren Johnson took the witness stand Thursday afternoon, more than a month after trial proceedings got underway in former Ald. Ed Burke’s landmark corruption case.
