Charles “Ray” Craft, Councilmember from December 2001 to December 2007, pleaded guilty June 1 to filing a false tax return knowingly and willingly in 2005.
He was sentenced November 12, 2009 to one year and a day in federal prison. He paid $192,000 in restitution to the government today.
It's NOT a story from The Onion.
Spitzer to give ethics lecture at Harvard and the madam who supplied him with the hooker escort wonders how Harvard would allow it.
Calling Spitzer a "man without ethics," [Kristin] Davis listed seven reasons why Harvard should reconsider. She asks whether Spitzer was ethical for booking "an assignation with a escort under a fake name after you were banned by my agency for being abusive to women?"
Last week the U.S. House Ethics Committee cleared Rep. Heath Shuler (D - NC) of wrongdoing for contacting the TVA when that agency was considering a controversial water-access deal in which he had a sizable stake.
Shuler was part of an investment group that received approval from TVA for a water-access transaction at the same time that Shuler sat on a congressional committee that provided oversight of the utility.They cleared Shuler before the TVA Inspector General's report became public. The report became public after the Knoxville News Sentinel requested it under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Specifically, if all of this was above board, why did TVA and Shuler feel compelled to tell the media that there was no contact between the congressman and TVA in relation to the Maintain and Gain application?” the report said. “There obviously was.”The TVA IG, however, said the Shuler transaction was legitimate. They also absolved themselves from blame. It was a lack of protocols that was the reason they did not seek the usual independent review of their actions.
The TVA OIG has no jurisdiction over the conduct of aPDF Pg 14 Begins detailed report on how Shuler formed the development company and then became sole owner.
United States Congressman and we make no judgment as to whether Congressman
Shuler’s actions connected to the Blackberry Cove matter violate any existing ethical
standard.
TVA did not use its normal internal and external concurrence process for Blackberry’s Maintain and Gain proposal which ordinarily would have included the internal committee review and the review of external natural resources agencies.The scale of the Blackberry project is found on PDG Pg 18. "Blackberry had 155 lots over approximately 185 acres which would cost an estimated $8.6 million to develop."
If it is reasonable to require federal employees to recognize their own conflicts of interest, then it is reasonable to require a federal agency to report suspected conflicts such as the ones that occurred in this case. The same logic that makes self-reporting for employees critical applies to federal agencies.
GUILTY PLEA
December 2008 - Douglas Benit, an assistant superintendent in Ecorse until 2003 until he became Superintendent of Willow Run schools, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and bank fraud. He was fired from Willow Run for conflict of interest he had with two companies he owned that did business with the district. His company was awarded $2 million in school contracts.
He was accused of defrauding the Ecorse Public Schools and a federal program out of nearly $7.3 million. There are no charges against Benit stemming from his time as superintendent of Willow Run Community Schools.
The one count of bank fraud was for misrepresenting his income to obtain a $575,000 mortgage to refinance their home in Superior Township and to obtain equity credit lines totaling $300,000. She pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced to one day in jail and three years of supervised release.
SENTENCED
March 27, 2009 - Benit was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
Ecorse is outside of Detroit. On September 25, 2009, Ecorse Mayor Herbert Worthy and city Controller Erwin Hollenquest were arrested on charges conspiracy, bribery, and fraud. See entry.
Plea agreement and indictment documents.
No political affiliation for the non-partisan office, but Benit's political donations 2000-2004 were to the Republican Congressional Committee.
SENTENCED
April 9, 2009 - Ken Schultz, (D) Albuquerque mayor from December 1985 to November 1989, was sentenced to five years probation and paying a share of $591,000 in restitution for a court house construction scandal. He pleaded guilty to being the bagman in a kickback scheme in which money was skimmed from the construction of Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Courthouse.
- Statement of U.S. Attorney on the sentencing. PDF
- No newspaper identified him as a Democrat. Wikipedia entry supplied info.
ALSO SENTENCED
Manny Aragón, (D) former state senator and president pro tempore of the Senate, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison and nearly $2 million in fines and restitution.
Statement of U.S. Attorney on the sentencing. PDF
Only the Seattle Times and ABC News identified him as a Democrat.
Former Metro Court Administrator Toby Martinez who approved bogus and padded invoices - 67 months in prison and $2.7 million in restitution.
Sandra Mata Martinez, Toby Martinez's wife, who pleaded guilty to knowing about the scheme and not reporting it. Some of the diverted money was laundered through a front company set up in her name earning her a sentence of five years probation and $106,000 in restitution.
Raul Parra, a business owner whose hose contract to install audio video systems in the courthouse became the source of much of the skimmed loot, sentenced to 46 months in prison and $611,000 in fines and restitution.
Architect Marc Schiff was given one year and one day in prison for his role in skimming more than $4 million from construction of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse.
Engineer Raul Parra pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and mail fraud. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $601,000 in restitution. He
From the memory bank...
December 2006
Ben Cooper, 64, the former mayor and town manager of Appalachia who rigged an election to tighten his grip on the small coal-mining town, was convicted of 243 felonies.
Fourteen people, most of them relatives of running mate Owen "Andy" Sharrett or supporters of Cooper, were indicted. (Read full indictment here.)
The conspiracy involved forging the names of the intended voters on the stolen ballots and mailing them back to the voter registrar. Town clerk Belinda Sharrett and former police Officer Benjamin Surber -- pleaded guilty. Retired mail carrier Don Estridge found guilty in a jury trial and was sentenced to 18 months for his part. (Later slashed to one year.) Ben Cooper was sentenced to two years in prison. Former parks and recreation director Dude Sharrett got one year of electronic monitoring. He pleaded guilty and named as his co-conspirators a group of people who included his wife, two sons, an aunt, the town's former mayor, and Don Estridge.
Andy Sharrett (a town councilman swept into office by the tainted 2004 elections) was sentenced to 60 days home electronic monitoring and the rest of a three-year sentence on supervised probation, as well as community service hours to the town. Adam Sharett received a 12-month suspended jail sentence, with that year on supervised probation and 100 hours of community service to the town.
Sharrett testified that an aunt, Betty Chloe Sharrett Bolling - a longtime activist in local Democratic politics and a former poll precinct worker - figured prominently in the scheme to snare absentee ballots, ensure the tampered ballots contained all the necessary information in all the appropriate places, and made sure they got returned to the Board of Elections. Bolling filled in parts of the ballots. She pleaded guilty to 52 counts for her role in vote fraud. No sentencing information found.
There seems to have been a gambling connection.
CONVICTED
April 2009 - Following a long tradition in New Jersey and in Alabama, New Jersey Sen. Joseph Coniglio 66, (D) was convicted on federal corruption charges for a no-show job.
A jury convicted Coniglio, 66, (D) in April on the extortion count and five of eight mail fraud counts for funneling more than $1 million in state grants to HUMC after it agreed to sign him on as a "hospital relations" consultant in May 2004. During the 22 months he was on the hospital’s payroll, prosecutors said, he received a stream of corrupt payments in return for using his influence and position on a powerful Senate budget committee to steer state grants to the hospital.SENTENCED
NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
November 11, 2009 - Mark S. Congi, 45, former president of Laborers Local 91 (Niagara Falls, NY) is looking for a reduction in his 15-year sentence for racketeering after testifying on Monday at the trial of Joseph L. Bruno, (R) former leader of the State Senate. The trial is ongoing.
Congi testified
that that his late boss, Michael “Butch” Quarcini, expected “favors” from Bruno in exchange for investing union pension funds with a company that employed Bruno as a consultant.Bruno was indicted in January 2009 on eight counts of corruption, including mail and wire fraud. He was the Senate majority leader from 1995 until retiring last year. Several officials from various unions have testified so far at the trial.
“[Quarcini] felt to make Mr. Bruno happy, we’d invest with this company, and he’d do us favors in return,” Congi testified. “[Quarcini] felt the more money we gave to the company, the more help we were going to get from Senator Bruno.”
But under cross-examination, Congi admitted that there is no way to independently verify his account of any statements made by Quarcini, who died in 2003 while under indictment on racketeering charges.
According to evidence presented at trial, Bourke participated in a scheme to bribe senior government officials in Azerbaijan with several hundred million dollars in shares of stock, cash and other gifts, to ensure that those officials would privatize the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) in a rigged auction that only Bourke, fugitive Czech investor Viktor Kozeny and members of their investment consortium could win, to their massive profit. Kozeny is under indictment in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in the scheme.Kozeny is fighting extradition from the Bahamas. He was described as a friend and neighbor of Bourke's in Aspen, Colorado.
ARRESTED
Greenville County councilman Tony Trout (R) was arrested in October 2008, charged with unauthorized access of computers for planting spyware on Greenville County Administrator Joe Kernell's computer.
CONVICTED
He was convicted by a jury in April 2009 on the charges of unlawful access to computers, distribution of information and intercepting emails. He was found not guilty of destroying evidence.
SENTENCED
November 11, 2009 - He was sentenced to 1 day and 1 year in jail and three years of probation.
He said he wished he would have researched federal laws before doing any of this. He still has his blog on Greenville County corruption online. His bio reveals that he might know a thing or two about laws. He is president of Pro-Teck Security Services and says he has an extensive background in safety and security. Prior to forming his company, Mr. Trout served as a police officer for 13 years.
Nov. 6, 2009
SENATOR TESTIFIES.
State Sen. Lena Taylor (D) testified after she was promised that what she said under oath would not be used against her in the ongoing criminal investigation. Termed a John Doe investigation, details are not available to the public.
Nov. 10, 2009
UNDER INVESTIGATION.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Milwaukee County Supervisor Toni Clark [No party given.] is the subject of a secret criminal investigation into possible campaign finance abuses.
The investigation is not related to Clark's decision earlier this year to travel with Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs to the inauguration of President Barack Obama at taxpayers' expense, sources say.Clark has had problems with finance reporting since she was elected in 2003. Sources indicated to the newspaper that the investigation appeared to be an offshoot of an earlier probe of Supervisor Michael Mayo [No party given.] He agreed to pay a $7,500 forfeiture.
The two supervisors later apologized for the trip and reimbursed the county nearly $4,000, including $931 in round-trip airfare and hotel bills for Clark that ran as high as $644 a night.
CHANGE OF VENUE FOR NEW TRIAL SOUGHT
November 11, 2009 - Scott Jensen, (R) former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker, was convicted of felony misconduct in office in 2006 but won a new trial on appeal because, the Wisconsin State Journal wrote: "Jensen was able to convince an appeals court that he should have been able to show his first jury evidence of Democratic actions similar to his." (See Resources below for actual Appeals Court decisions.)
Jensen parked state employees for months in out-state legislative districts to campaign full-time for hand-picked candidates - all on the public's dime, according to fellow workers. One top Assembly aide worked on the state clock as a full-time GOP fundraiser for years, colleagues testified.The Wisconsin State Journal says he "can't dodge the disgrace".
The 4th District Court ruled that a Dane County judge wrongly excluded Jensen's testimony about his understanding of the use of state resources for campaigns.They go on to explain that Jensen was one of five former legislative leaders found guilty after a lengthy Capitol corruption investigation. Jensen's former aide, Sherry Schultz (R), was also granted a new trial based on the jury instructions. Others convicted include: Senator Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D), Senator Brian Burke (D), Former Assembly Majority Leader Steve Foti (R), and Assistant Majority Leader Bonnie Ladwig (R).
Jensen appealed from his conviction and we reversed and remanded for a new trial based on the trial court’s issuing an erroneous jury instruction and wrongfully excluding part of Jensen’s testimony. State v. Jensen, 2007 WI App 256, ¶1, 306 Wis. 2d 572, 743 N.W.2d 468.Reversal of conviction: 2007 WI APP 256
One of the reasons we don't have stronger drunk driving laws is due to the number of politicians and their backers who have drink and drive problems. The Richardson administration has, they say, a zero tolerance for drunken drivers.
Cindy Padilla (D) New Mexico's Secretary of Aging and Long-Term Services resigned over a drunken driving arrest just days after she was appointed to a spot in President Barack Obama's administration. She earned $105,000 a year.
An article, "Racial disparity: All active ethics probes focus on black lawmakers" from Politico looks at current House ethics investigations.
The House ethics committee is currently investigating seven African-American lawmakers — more than 15 percent of the total in the House. And an eighth black member, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), would be under investigation if the Justice Department hadn’t asked the committee to stand down.
Not a single white lawmaker is currently the subject of a full-scale ethics committee probe.
If it stinks, it must be Cleveland.
Lori Frazier, the niece of Cleveland's Mayor, said that she still considered herself to be Anthony Sowell's girlfriend. She moved in with the suspected serial killer shortly after he was released from prison in 2005.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the relationship. "Frazier said she was a drug addict and used drugs with Sowell. But she had no idea he could have been a serial killer." She, too, noticed the smell. Police have recovered 11 bodies from Anthony Sowell's home.
Mayor Frank Jackson was reelected this week.
The October 27, 2009 New York Times editorial, "The Fog of Ethics," makes good reading.
Extortion, bribery, racketeering — those are just some of the crimes that have sent members of the New York State Legislature to jail in the last five years.They cite the case of Anthony Seminerio, 74, (D - Queens 38 District).
Federal prosecutors said that for the last decade he traded upon his office, receiving “corrupt payments” from people or organizations that had business before the state and sometimes threatening those who resisted his requests for money.The Federal agent was introduced to Seminerio by Brian McLaughlin, a Queens Democrat, labor leader and fellow assemblyman. At the time, McLaughlin was under indictment for using his position to steal $2.2 million in cash, cars and perks.
Only in California could the vice chairman of the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce brag into an open microphone about a having an extramarital affair with a Sempra Energy lobbyist and it's not considered unethical.
Republican Michael Duvall was cleared of any prosecutable offense by the FBI. And Sempra Energy said it has reinstated Lobbyist Heidi Barsuglia as an employee.
Duvall resigned September 9 after a videotape of his comments were broadcast over the internet. He is married with two adult children.
COUNCILMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SEX CHARGE
SENTENCED TO 60 DAYS IN JAIL
Waynesboro councilman Dubose Egleston,55, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor sexual battery. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, all of it suspended. Half of a $1,000 fine also was suspended. Police and prosecutors refuse to give details.
Egleston served as a Waynesboro councilman from 1998 to 2002, but lost his seat. He failed in subsequent bids in 2004, 2006 and 2008 to rejoin council.
ELECTION FRAUD ALLEGED BY CITY COUNCILMAN AND CAMPAIGN WORKERS
ARRAIGNED Nov 4, 2009 
Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small (D) (pictured right) and 13 others were indicted in September on various second-degree charges that they improperly handled messenger ballots during this year's Democratic primary. Small lost that election to Mayor Lorenzo Langford, who was re-elected to a four-year term in Tuesday's general election.
In some instances, the defendants opened sealed envelopes to see who the vote went to, then, if it wasn't for "the right person," they would destroy it, Deputy Attorney General Anthony Picione told Superior Court Judge James Isman. Some voters never even received their ballots or got the ballot the same time they were given the application, "Which, your honor knows, is not possible," Picione added.Small is also director of after-school activities for the Atlantic City School Board. He was endorsed by the Atlantic City Democratic Committee. He was indicted in a similar case in 2005, but a jury eventually acquitted him of the third-degree charges.
Trumbauersville, PENNSYLVANIA
April 2009 - Trumbauersville Councilman Eugene DiNatale, 62, (R) will spend up to three and a half years in federal prison for his part in defrauding the IRS out of more than $4.4 million.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, between 2001 and 2004, conspired to defraud the IRS by assisting in the filing of false income tax returns for his clients, which were agencies that provided temporary laborers. The agencies were owned and operated by Asian immigrants. DiNatale is also ordered to pay $4.3 million in restitution. He will serve his time in a minimum security detainment center.
DiNatale was appointed to the council in 2000. He went on to win election in 2001 and again four years later.
Why do they arrest these guys after the failed election attempt?
You might think they are spoilers or something.
VIRGINIA
William Smith, a candidate for the 19th District General Assembly on the Constitution Party ticket, was convicted in 1997 on felony pandering, "which," the Roanoke Times blogger explains, "in less polite term means pimping." Smith was sentenced to six years in jail, suspended after a year. Smith says he left the Republican party two years ago. He had his voting rights restored by Gov. Tim Kaine. (D) Chairman of the DNC.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Gary Dodds, (D) 1st District U.S. House candidate in 2006, convicted of faking a car crash to boost his chances during the campaign, was arrested in 2008 in Portsmouth for allegedly violating his bail conditions amid allegations that he assaulted his wife. He was released from jail in February 2009 after serving 8 months.
WASHINGTON
Oct. 2009 - Washougal City Council candidate Garry Alexander Sr., 55, (Non-partisan) pleaded guilty last week to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, a felony, and is spending 60 days in jail, to be followed by 30 days of work release. The conviction mean he couldn't serve even if he won. Alexander was forced to resign from the school board and city council in February 2007 as a result of the felony theft conviction. His voting rights were suspended but later reinstated.
VIRGINIA
Sept 10, 2009 - Bradley Rees (R but professed Libertarian) Candidate 5th Congressional District seat was convicted of illegally possessing concealed weapons. Police confiscated two guns in his car after stopping him because of an expired inspection-rejection sticker.
Nov 5, 2009 - The Montgomery Advertiser dismisses as "campaign attacks" the GOP efforts to focus attention of Democrats.
The stars of the new video are former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, former Democratic Party chairman Bill Blount of Montgomery, former Democratic Party executive director Al LaPierre, former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, former state legislators Sue Schmitz, Bryant Melton and E.B. McClain, and former state two-year-college chancellor Roy Johnson, who also is a former Democratic legislator.Apparently, the "Republicans are trying to use the Democrats' rap sheets as campaign fodder to give GOP candidates an advantage in the 2010 elections." Folks at the paper are hoping there will be campaign and ethics reforms.
All of these Democrats have been convicted of some type of government corruption charge in recent years.
ARRESTED ON TAX EVASION CHARGES
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Roger Corbin, 62, (D) Nassau County Legislator, was arrested in May 2009 on charges of evading taxes on $226,000 he allegedly received from a developer.
Corbin was no stranger to controversy, according to Newsday in this story right after his arrest.. "Over the years, he often branded his opponents as racists; threatened to withhold his vote from his fellow Democrats on various issues, such as redistricting and the appointment."
He has pleaded not guilty. He was defeated in the September primary. (Also defeated was George Guldi, 56, (D) in his bid to become a Suffolk County legislator again. He lost the Suffolk county seat in 2003 after 10 years in office. Guldi was arrested in March and indicted in August on on charges related to $82 million in mortgage fraud.)
Corbin is suing his first attorney and a private detective he hired for his defense.
AWAITING TRIAL
Described by prosecutors as "an out-of-control and foul-mouthed aggressor," Joseph James Marzilli, Jr., 50, Massachusetts State Senator, is awaiting trial, accused of sexually assaulting and harassing several women between 2006 and 2008. On Oct 23, 2009, the Appeals Court turned down a request by three women to seek a restraining order against him.
Marzilli was accused in 2006, but prosecutrs dropped the case for what they said was lack of evidence. He was arrested in Lowell in June 2008. He gave police a false name and they arrested him after a foot chase. (Scroll down for other allegations.) Video
Marzilli resigned his Senate seat last year. He spent 17 years in the Massachusetts House. Wikipedia entry for his activities in the environmental movement and health care. The Boston Globe reported that he was trying to get the Legislature to double his pension. The request was pending the outcome of his criminal case. The newspaper found that 14 former legislators were currently drawing significantly increased pensions under the law
Another former candidate arrested
In Huntington, WV, Amy Walker Irwin, was arrested Sunday night and charged with possession of a controlled substance. She was found outside a known crack house and a substance in her car tested positive.
In an arraignment where noone was allowed, including family, Irwin was charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and allowed to leave with her family.
In 2008, just weeks before voters were set to go to the polls, Irwin, who was considered a shoe-in to become a magistrate, was arrested on six felony drug counts and one count of bribery.The remaining bribery and drug trafficking counts advanced to Cabell Circuit Court and still await indictment. Her father is a former Cabell County Circuit Judge.
Five of those drug charges were later dismissed.
ARRESTED
Charles "Chuck" Della Rocco, 41, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for first selectman in the Nov. 3 town election, was arrested by state police Thursday on forgery and larceny charges.
A former Old Saybrook police officer who currently serves on the Chester Board of Education and the Chester Democratic Town Committee, he was defeated in the election by Republican First Selectman Tom Marsh on a 758-465 vote.
The investigation began in July. Neighbors allege that Della Rocco borrowed a pick up truck from the couple, and later sold the vehicle to another person using the Craigslist website.
IN DEEP RIVER, Laura Smith, the wife of longtime First Selectman Richard H. Smith was arrested for first degree larceny from the Liberty Bank. Richard Smith, a Democrat, also serves as a town police officer.
The arrest came the day after he won the election as the town’s top-elected official.
ARRESTED
State Rep. Jeff Wood, 40, (I-Chippewa Falls), was arrested for the fifth time for driving under the influence. The arrest charges are for operating under the influence of an intoxicant or other drug third offense and bail jumping.
Wood represents the 67th Assembly District and is serving his fourth term for the district. First elected in 2002 as a Republican, he was reelected in 2004 and 2006 before running as an Independent in 2008. There is a movement underway to expel him from the legislature.
Arrest complaint here.
Photo credit: Tomah Police Department
INDICTED
Nov 6, 2009 - Former GOP legislator and son of former Kentucky Gov. Louie Nunn, Steve Nunn, was was indicted Tuesday by a Hart County grand jury on six counts of wanton endangerment.
Arraignment is scheduled for November 17.
Nunn is accused of shooting and killing his former girlfriend, 29-year-old Amanda Ross in September 2009.
Nunn ran unsuccessfully for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2003. He lost a bid for re-election to the state House in 2006 after 15 years as a state representative.
In September 2007, Nunn announced his support of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear, a former lieutenant governor. Shortly after, in December, Beshear appointed Nunn as deputy secretary of Health and Family Services. He was put on administrative leave in February after being charged with domestic violence for allegedly slapping Ross. He resigned in March. (Wikipedia entry)
Nunn has pleaded not guilty.
SENTENCED
August 13, 2009 - Morton Salkind, 77, (D-Marlboro from 1974-1976) was sentenced to one year in prison today on tax evasion charges. A former mayor of Marlboro and state Lottery Commissioner, has agreed to pay about $17 million in back taxes, interest and penalties. He pleaded guilty in May 2008.
He also served on the Hudson County Improvement Authority and other state and local agencies.
May 20, 2009
SENTENCED for racketeering
Brian McLaughlin, 56, (D) who served seven terms in the state Assembly (25th Assembly District) before becoming president of New York City Central Labor Council, the nation's largest municipal labor council, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty in 2008 to racketeering charges alleging he secretly skimmed $2.2 million from various sources, including a political campaign committee, union accounts meant to provide benefits for members and even contributions to a Little League baseball program.
He admitted he used his position as a state assemblyman between 1997 and 2006 to direct state funds to a rigged community association. He created two bank accounts for the association — one to fund children's athletics, the other for personal use.
From the New York Times, "Prosecutors charged that Mr. McLaughlin had misappropriated more than $330,000 from his own re-election committee; $185,000 from the New York City Central Labor Council, which he led; and more than $35,000 from the State Assembly. They said he had created fictitious jobs within the labor council and on his own legislative staff, and took kickbacks from the jobholders."
CONVICTION UPHELD
November 4, 2009. The N.C. Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of former state Rep. Thomas Wright, 54, (D).
Wright was sentenced in April 2008 to more than seven years in prison after his conviction on three felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses for taking out a fraudulent bank loan and depositing contributions intended for charity into his personal bank account.
He was also found guilty in August 2008 of obstruction of justice for preventing election officials from carrying out their duties as they investigated his failure to report $150,000 in campaign contributions. He was sentenced to six- to eight-months in prison to be served concurrently with an existing six- to eight-year prison sentence for fraud.
State law requires him to serve at least 85 percent of his six to eight year sentence.
Earlier, he was kicked out of the N.C. House by his peers for ethical violations, becoming the first legislator to suffer that fate since 1880.
SENTENCING for Monica Conyers, the 44-year-old wife of Congressman John Conyers, 80, will be delayed until January 15.
Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with the Synagro sludge scandal and Detroit City Hall investigation. She admitted taking at least $6,000 from Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson among other undisclosed amounts to change her vote in favor of the Synagro contract in 2007.
She resigned from the Detroit City Council in June. She made $85,000-per-year at the post. First elected in 2005, she was interim president of the council as the time of her arrest. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox also had warned he would take court action against Conyers if she refused to resign by Tuesday.
She married John Conyers in 1990 when she was 25 and he was 61. On April 2009, one day after denying the relation, Conyers admitted she helped her brother, Reggie Esters, a convicted felon, obtain a city job that was originally to last four months, but was extended to two years, ending only when Esters' absenteeism became an issue. He had a long rap sheet. He has been arrested at least 14 times since 1988. In 1990, he was charged with first-degree murder but was acquitted after a jury trial. I About the time he was fired, Esters was charged with 10 felony counts related to his brandishing a shotgun at two people in Detroit. He pleaded guilty and was to have been sentenced in April.
Her booking photo is from the U.S. Marshal's Service.
John Conyers is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
INDICTED
Arthur "Art" Blackwell, 56, described as "a longtime friend of Gov. Jennifer Granholm," was charged with embezzling $264,000 from the struggling municipality. He had been appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to rescue the town from insolvency. He was arraigned October 8.
Blackwell has been charged with embezzlement of $100,000 or more; embezzlement as a public official over $50.00; common law offenses - misconduct in office and refusing to turn over money to a successor.
Blackwell was appointed by Gov. Granholm in 2005 to bring the city of Highland Park out of financial trouble. A taxpayer lawsuit alleged that Blackwell cut a backroom deal with the state to secretly pay him $11,000 a month, or $132,000 a year.
Blackwell was removed from office in April.
It is alleged that Blackwell Blackwell has collected total payments of $187,000 from the state and $308,000 from the city. Blackwell has collected total payments of $187,000 from the state and $308,000 from the city.
March 21, 2009
SENTENCED
Gregory Harland Anderson, 59 , (unknown party), Mayor of Florence in the 1980s, was convicted and sentenced on cocaine charges. Prosecutors said an undercover Springfield police informant made multiple purchases of crack cocaine from Anderson before police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched his home and car, finding crack cocaine, powder cocaine, scales and packaging material.
He was convicted of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE press release (Dated March 20, 2009)
SENTENCED (AGAIN) 
January 29, 2009
Former Assemblyman and Orange Mayor Mims Hackett Jr, 67, (D) was sentenced Friday to five years in prison on state charges of official misconduct for submitting more than $5,000 in phony receipts to the city of Orange over a four-year period.
The sentence will run concurrently with a nine-month federal prison term on a bribery conviction after he pleaded guilty in May to charges of attempted extortion. He was one of 11 politicians arrested for corruption in 2007.
He served on the Orange City Council from 1988-1996; Assemblyman from 2000-2007; and Mayor from 2002-2007.
INDICTED
On May 28, 2008, Chicago 29th Ward Alderman Isaac "Ike" Carothers, 54, (D) was indicted Thursday on federal fraud and bribery charges for allegedly accepting $40,000 in home improvements from a developer in return for supporting a zoning change for the city's largest undeveloped tract of land.
Carothers is the powerful chair of the City Council Police and Fire Committee. He e previously worked as an investigator with the Cook County Public Defender's Office before being appointed as superintendent with the city's water department in 1989. Four years later, he was appointed as Director of Internal Audit for the city's park district.
He was charged with wire and mail fraud, accepting a bribe and filing a false federal income tax return. Calvin Boender, the developer of Galewood Yards, was also named in the indictment. Boender allegedly made $3 million more off the sale of 25 acres of the land than he would have without the zoning changes. The zoning was changed from manufacturing use to the more profitable residential and commercial use, boosting the sale value by $6 million.
Carothers is the 31st council member in four decades to be indicted. Thirty have been convicted.
Carothers father was one of them, an alderman and Democratic committeeman on the West Side. In 1983, Bill Carothers was convicted of extortion. He tried to block a $14 million hospital expansion project unless and until he got $15,000 worth of improvements for his office.
Ike Carothers is described as Mayor Daley's most outspoken African-American supporter. See Is Is Ald. Isaac Carothers following his father's footsteps? (Be sure to scroll to the bottom)
Complete Indictment (from Huffington Post)
Carrothers has pleaded not guilty.
ARRESTED
On September 26, 2009, Ecorse, Michigan, Mayor Herbert Worthy, 77, (left) and Controller Erwin "Earl" Hollenquest, (right) 62, were arrested on bribery-related charges. They are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 16. Both are Democrats.
An FBI affidavit attached to the federal charging documents lays out a tale of two businessmen plying Worthy and Hollenquest with at least $40,000 in cash, a 1998 Lexus and other favors in return for millions in municipal payments. Businessman Stacey Tarockoff and associate, Sheldon Divers, are alleged to have largely bankrolled Worthy's 2007 mayoral campaign and formed Michigan Municipal Services LLC two days after Worthy was elected.
After the mayor eliminated the city's public works department, the newly-formed company received contracts that generated more than $3.1 million in, what prosecutors say, were often inflated billings. They also hired Worthy's son and grandson, as discovered by the Detroit Free Press. Divers, FREEP reported, "has a felony criminal conviction for cocaine possession and misdemeanor convictions for drug possession, records indicate."
Worthy was reelected Mayor on November 4.
Ecorse Wikipedia entry.
Since the post-war era, the city, like most other industrial inner-ring suburbs, has fallen into economic decline. In December 1986, the Wayne County Circuit Court issued a court order appointing a receiver for the bankrupt city. The receivership would last until August 1990, but the city's finances were monitored by the state for another ten years, afterwards.Criminal Complaint against Worthy PDF
By the fall of 2009, facing a $9 million deficit and a federal corruption probe, Governor Jennifer Granholm declared a financial emergency for the city, paving the way for the appointment of an emergency financial manager.
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's (D) trial will start Monday, November 9. Dixon faces felony charges of theft and misdemeanor charges related to her duties. The case against her alleges that she stole gift
cards intended for needy families that were donated to the city by two developers.
Ronald Limpscom, a developer who once was romantically involved with Dixon while she was City Council President, was given probation for making an illegal campaign contribution after pleading guilty to putting $6,500 toward a political survey for City Councilwoman Helen Holton. He will be testifying against Dixon, who’s accused of lying about gifts from him and stealing gift cards donated for needy families.
Lipscomb apologized to his wife.
Photo credit: Associated Press
Nov 9, 2009 - The Christian Science Monitor is already playing the race card. "Jury selection key in trial of Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon" ... jury's racial composition could determine who wins the case.
Legal experts say the racial and gender makeup of the jury will be key. Baltimore city juries are notoriously sympathetic to minority defendants, says University of Baltimore School of Law professor Byron Warnken. The Democratic Dixon, the first female mayor of Baltimore, is black; Mr. Rohrbaugh, a Republican, is white.[Ed - It is in the parlance of politics, a football where one side wins and the other side loses. No right. No wrong. Just winning and losing and to heck with decency, justice or the public right to honest representation.]
“We cannot underestimate the fact that the state prosecutors office is all white guys who don’t practice in the city,” Professor Warnken says. “Race is germane in the United States of America, and it is really germane in the criminal justice system.”
CONVICTED
On October 15, Queens State Senator Hiram Monserrate, 43 (D) was convicted of misdemeanor assault for causing injury to his girlfriend after a trial before Justice William M. Erlbaum.
In a somewhat lurid bench trial that featured video of the state senator dragging his girlfriend through the lobby of her apartment building, and contradictory testimony by the woman, the state Senator denied deliberately cutting her face on a glace. She required 20 stitches to her face.
Had he been convicted of the felony charges, Monserrate, a former NYPD cop and City Councilman, would have automatically lost his seat. Albany leaders are considering action against him. Monserrate was one of three Democratic senators who briefly switched to help Republicans briefly gain control of the Senate.
He represents the 13th District which includes the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst and Woodside.
CONVICTED
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, 63, (D) was convicted on October 28 by a Federal jury on 60 charges ranging from bribery and money laundering to filing false tax returns and fraud. (Full list of counts here.)
The Associated Press reported that "Assistant U.S. Attorney
Tamarra Matthews Johnson told jurors in closing arguments that Langford was heavily in debt and accepted the gifts from [Bill] Blount, along with checks or loan payoffs through a middleman, lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both Blount and LaPierre pleaded guilty in the scheme and testified against Langford."
The AP noted that "Langford is a Democrat and longtime friend of Blount, a former chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party. LaPierre worked for years as the party's executive director."
The Birmingham News editorialized on the conviction.
The Langford bribery case was just the latest in a long line of criminal cases arising from the county's bloated, mismanaged, corruption-plagued sewer overhaul. About two dozen people have been convicted, including three former commissioners before Langford. (One of them, Gary White, has asked for and been granted a new trial.) The county is still trying to find a way to pay the sewer debt without having to file the country's largest municipal bankruptcy.JP Morgan Chase has agreed to forfeit $647 million in swap termination fees, to pay the county $50 million and to pay the SEC a $25 million fine for steering the county into risky financing schemes and interest rate swaps so they could reap millions of dollars in fees.
New York Assemblyman Chris Ortloff, (R) 61, who represented the North Country's 110th Assembly District from 1986 until 2006, pleaded guilty on Christmas Eve 2008 to a federal charge of using the Internet to solicit sex from minors.
From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:
Authorities say that, starting in June 2008, Ortloff repeatedly began e-mailing a police investigator whom he believed to be the mother of two preteen sisters, and he arranged to meet them at a Colonie
motel for sex on Oct. 13. When state police showed up at the motel to arrest him, he reportedly answered the door naked and had condoms, vibrators, lubricant, a camera and assorted sex toys in the room.His sentencing has been delayed three times. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced on April 23. He has been in custody since that time. Sentencing is now set for March 8, 2010.
He was in the Legislature from 1982 through 2008. He was chairman of the Senate budget committee from 2002 through 2007. The Star-Ledger refers to him as "once a titan of politics."