Daley Patronage Guys Robert Sorich, et al, Fail in “No One Could Have Guessed” Effort to Wiggle Out of Trial

The “’no one could have guessed’ what we were doing was illegal” defense has fallen flat in the criminal trial of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and co-defendants Timothy McCarthy, John Sullivan and Patrick Slattery. (Katalinic is cooperating with authorities.)

“What the government charges—that public employees who create a complex, clandestine process for rigging purportedly neutral hiring processes in order to benefit themselves and their patrons are depriving their employers of their honest services—is neither the kind of incredible allegation that is bound to ensnare an honest civil servant intent on doing her job nor its prosecution entirely unprecedented in criminal case law even with this Circuit.”

That’s part of what Judge David H. Coar wrote today in denying dismissal of the case brought by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. (More of the judge’s language at McHenry County Blog.)

The Tribune has this story up.