Mistrial in case of former AT&T chief accused of bribing Madigan – NBC Chicago

On Thursday, a mistrial was declared in the case of the former president of AT&T Illinois Paul LaSchiazza after the jury informed the court that a unanimous verdict could not be reached.

La Schiazza was accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan to land the “white whale” that the utility and its top executive had “desperately wanted for nearly a decade,” a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday. La Schiazza's lawyers insisted there was no bribery.

A jury of eight women and four men was to decide whether La Schiazza was involved in a corrupt deal at the Illinois State Capitol in 2017. The panel began deliberations on Tuesday after hearing three hours of closing arguments in La Schiazza's bribery trial.

The jury began deliberating the case at about 2:40 p.m. and left the courthouse at 4:10 p.m. Deliberations continued on Wednesday and Thursday. Late Thursday afternoon, the jury declared the trial void.

Prosecutors say La Schiazza bribed Madigan by funneling $22,500 to former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo, a Madigan ally and fellow Southwestern Democrat, over a nine-month period while AT&T Illinois was trying to push through legislation that he said could bring in millions in business.

Madigan faces a separate indictment, including charges related to the AT&T allegations, and his trial is scheduled for October 8.

Defense attorney Tinos Diamantatos derided prosecutors' arguments in his closing argument Tuesday, pointing to the government's “dark and stormy” interpretation of the evidence and at one point calling his client an “unethical briber.” The reality, he said, is that there is no evidence that La Schiazza traded Acevedo's money for AT&T's legislative success.

“That is the crucial point in this case, and that is what is missing,” Diamantatos said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sushma Raju and Timothy Chapman said that exact exchange emerged from emails La Schiazza sent weeks after AT&T Illinois' bill went into effect – and after Madigan's son asked for a donation to a nonprofit.

La Schiazza complained to a colleague at the time that such requests were “endless” and that “we now have the friends and family rate.”

“This is the plan of Madigan's friends and family,” Raju insisted on Tuesday. She described the emails as “an afterthought of what [La Schiazza] did and why he did it.”

“This is not about building goodwill,” Raju said. “This is not just about sucking up to Madigan. These are recognitions that [La Schiazza] and AT&T felt they had to “bribe Madigan” to get their bill passed.

Jurors heard more than a dozen witnesses over the course of four days. Jurors were told that no one at AT&T Illinois was particularly interested in hiring Acevedo after he left the legislature in 2017.

However, according to testimony in the trial, this attitude changed at the request of long-time lobbyist Michael McClain.

The request came as AT&T Illinois was looking to score a major legislative victory that had eluded it for years. The utility hoped to finally end its costly obligation to provide landline telephone service to all Illinois residents.

This obligation was called “Carrier of Last Resort” (COLR).

La Schiazza, on the other hand, viewed Madigan as all-powerful in Springfield. Emails showed him referring to the speaker as “King Madigan” and complaining that “the system is rigged.”

McClain was widely seen as Madigan's emissary in the Capitol. And when McClain sought a job for the recently retired Acevedo, La Schiazza urged his team to “act quickly.”

AT&T Illinois funneled the payments to Acevedo through a firm owned by lobbyist Tom Cullen. Another AT&T lobbyist, Stephen Selcke, said he proposed such an arrangement because Republicans had promised to vote against AT&T if the company hired Acevedo.

The COLR bill, with Madigan's support, became law on July 1, 2017. Madigan's son, Andrew Madigan, introduced the bill less than two weeks later.

Diamantatos asked Tuesday whether Madigan even knew about the job for Acevedo. And he noted that at one point La Schiazza wrote in an email that he wanted to make sure AT&T “has the legal approval to [Acevedo] This way.”

The defense also stressed that to agree with the prosecution's opinion, the jury would have to believe that Madigan ignored political considerations and changed his position on a bill because of a nine-month, $22,500 contract for Acevedo.

But Chapman stressed to jurors that bribery doesn't necessarily have to be successful to be punishable. And he said AT&T Illinois' lobbying team was “way too smart” to hire Acevedo if it would anger Republicans and jeopardize the law.

Hiring Acevedo only makes sense if she is “100 percent aligned with COLR,” Chapman said.