The Chicago Tribune
written by Annie Sweeney and Hal Dardick
Friday June 29, 2012
Joseph Mario Moreno and Ambrosio Medrano forged long political careers in Chicago and Cook County, their paths crossing at times as both opponents and allies.
On Thursday the two sat just feet from one another in a federal courtroom, both snared in a series of alleged corruption schemes that had a familiar Chicago ring to them: Cash kickbacks for influence-peddling.
One even involved Cicero, the notorious west suburb that federal authorities have long mined for crooked politicians. Moreno, who was appointed to a town panel to attract business after he lost re-election to the Cook County Board in 2010, was charged with bargaining for "a little piece" of the profits in return for winning backing for a waste transfer station.
"I don't want to be a hog; I just want to be a pig," Moreno is alleged to have explained to the businessman, who was secretly cooperating with federal authorities and recording their conversations. "Hogs get slaughtered; pigs get fat."
For Medrano, his arrest Thursday had to bring back bitter memories. Almost exactly 16 years ago, the Chicago alderman was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison for bribery in another federal courtroom as part of the undercover Operation Silver Shovel probe.
The contrast between the two defendants couldn't have been starker Thursday. Medrano had been arrested on the street dressed casually at about noon, according to his lawyer. He was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs. A judge ordered him detained after prosecutors raised concerns he would flee if released.
Moreno, who wore a dark suit coat, was allowed to turn himself in to authorities. He walked through the courthouse lobby and sat in the front row of the courtroom as he awaited the start of the hearing. Moreno was released on a $250,000 bond.
According to sources, Moreno has been cooperating with federal agents for months.
Attorney John De Leon, who is representing Medrano, described the two defendants as friends, but he said they were not exceptionally close. They are of the same generation and built political careers at the same time — Moreno, 59, hailing from the Back of the Yards, and Medrano, 58, from Pilsen.
"We're all very sad to see him here a second time," said De Leon, who said he is also Medrano's friend. "But we stand behind him."
According to authorities, Medrano and Moreno were each charged in two separate schemes — one carried out together, the other separately.
While Moreno was still a county commissioner and Medrano, once a political rival, worked on his staff, authorities alleged, the two agreed in 2010 to take bribes for using their influence to cause Stroger Hospital to buy a certain brand of bandages.
Medrano also was accused in a second bribery scheme last year in which a fictitious hospital official was paid to use a Nebraska company for its prescription drug services.
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