(The Center Square)
Lawyers representing four people indicted in a federal bribery and conspiracy case involving Illinois’ largest utility company are worried about the political science professor.
Expert witnesses’ descriptions of how Chicago’s political machine works could make their clients look guilty in front of a jury in an upcoming trial.
Federal prosecutors want University of Illinois at Chicago professor emeritus Dick Simpson to describe Chicago’s ward system as “the operation of a political machine that operates through ward political organizations, including ward committee members, precinct leaders and patron appointees.” Prosecutors said Simpson’s testimony was “narrowly relevant” to matters relevant to the trial and may not have been familiar to the jury.
Defense attorneys said Simpson’s testimony was not relevant.
“Professor Simpson’s unreliable, irrelevant, cumulative and prejudicial testimony was a transparent attempt to paint the four defendants with a broad brush of Chicago political corruption,” attorneys wrote in a motion to exclude Simpson’s testimony from trial.
Prosecutors argue that’s necessary background to a case involving ex-politicians, a former utility executive and a lobbyist, including Michael Madigan, the former Illinois speaker of the House, long considered the state’s most powerful politician because he controlled both of the lower levels. Served as Chairman of the Legislative Chamber and the Illinois Democratic Party.
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Prosecutors in November 2020 charged former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty, and former lobbyist and Madigan confidante Michael McClain with bribery conspiracy, bribery and knowingly falsifying ComEd books and records. to the charges.
Simpson, who received his Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University, and has served on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1967. He has a 28-page curriculum vitae. Prosecutors said he was “Chicago’s foremost expert on politics and government.” He has written extensively in books and scholarly journals about politics, with a focus on Chicago politics. He served as a Chicago alderman for eight years from 1971 to 1979. Prosecutors noted that Simpson has served as an expert witness in other trials, including a case involving sham political candidates in Madigan’s previous district. Simpson declined to comment because he is an expert witness in the case.
Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois, said prosecutors want to explain to jurors how the political system works.
“You need someone who has a reasonable sense of the way the process should work,” he said. “And when you go from the need to compromise and the need to build consensus to what you recognize as bribery, extortion, fraud … where is the line that goes beyond the give and take of normal politics.”
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If jurors have preconceived notions about Chicago politics, Redfield said defense attorneys are worried about how jurors might take that explanation.
“If you’ve got a jury that already believes that politics is corrupt in Illinois and that politics is particularly corrupt in Chicago — Chicago politicians are the quintessential example of that — then [the defense is] concern,” he said. “How will my client get a fair trial?”
Prosecutors, in response to the defense’s motion to exclude Simpson, wrote that Simpson’s “testimony provides critical context to the evidence in this case.”
A judge is expected to rule on the motion before an April hearing.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.