10 separate schemes

Red-light cameras trip up Sandoval — and prompt plenty of others to shoot nervous looks in their rear-view mirrors

The cloud of suspicion following Sandoval extends everywhere from the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, where one of his business associates was appointed to the board (and subsequently dumped) to the Town of Cicero.

By Mark Brown@MarkBrownCST Jan 27, 2020, 8:00pm CST

Then state Sen. Martin Sandoval argues mass transit funding legislation while on the Senate floor in 2008. File Photo Seth Perlman/AP
If former state Sen. Martin Sandoval is cooperating with a federal investigation into political corruption, and all indications are that he is, then there should be a lot of nervous people in his old orbit right about now.

Political allies, lobbyists, business owners — anyone who did a dirty deal with Sandoval — knows after Monday that he is not only in a position to give them up, but is required to do so under the terms
of any cooperation agreement.

And that means his case should have repercussions far beyond the spare details contained in the two-count criminal information brought against him in U.S. District Court.

Opinion

That document, typically used in place of an indictment when a defendant has already agreed to plead guilty, accuses Sandoval of bribery in connection with his efforts on behalf of red-light cameras and for filing a false tax return for unspecified unreported income in 2017.

But a far better picture of the damage Sandoval could do was contained in a federal search warrant served on his offices back in September, which clearly showed investigators were pursuing him for a wide range of suspected corrupt activity.

That warrant suggests Sandoval was being investigated for at least 10 separate schemes involving everything from red-light cameras to video gaming, recycled asphalt, road contracts and ComEd rate increases.

The cloud of suspicion following Sandoval extends everywhere from the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, where one of his business associates was appointed to the board (and subsequently dumped) to the Town of Cicero, which was not mentioned at all in the warrant but is home to Mayor Larry Dominick, a key political ally who also gave Sandoval a public relations contract.

It’s believed Sandoval was caught on undercover recordings, or in some similar incriminating circumstance that left him caught dead to rights with little room to mount a defense.


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Because of that, there’s been an assumption in political circles since the raid on his home and offices that Sandoval was cooperating. His December announcement that he would resign effective Jan.1 was taken as confirmation.

For that reason, it’s likely nobody under investigation was caught off guard by Monday’s charges offering additional evidence of Sandoval’s cooperation.

Given Sandoval’s reputation for unethical dealings, I would think most of his colleagues in the Legislature would have been smart enough to keep him at a safe distance, especially with so many of them convinced for years that this was where his career in politics was leading.

But a guilty plea from Sandoval could still have a ricochet effect, because his cooperation could sink anyone who has bribed him. And that in turn could make it easier for investigators to pressure those individuals into cooperating against other public officials involved in illegal activity.

As you already know, there are a great number of intersecting investigations currently awaiting indictment in the U.S. attorney’s office.

Here’s hoping Sandoval’s cooperation helps breaks the logjam.