He did the right thing, now who's next?

Ex-Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski pleads guilty in political corruption case but will not be sentenced until he helps  nail an additional 16 to 20 additional criminals. The best thing these people can do is come clean with the feds and make the best deal possible. 
Tobolski admitted Tuesday in federal court in Chicago to taking more than $250,000 in bribes and extortion payments. He is cooperating with investigators.

By Jon Seidel Sep 1, 2020, 10:58am CDT

Ex-Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Chicago to committing extortion and filing a false tax return. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

For scores of Chicago-area politicians, pleading guilty to federal corruption charges has involved an unavoidable, awkward stroll through the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

Former Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski managed to avoid that sideshow — as well as the reporters and TV cameras who might have been waiting — when he admitted to a judge by video link Tuesday that he’d engaged in multiple extortion and bribery schemes that involved abusing his dual roles as a county commissioner and mayor of west suburban McCook.

Though Tobolski’s plea agreement exposed details of one of those schemes, it acknowledged he’d agreed to accept a total of more than $250,000 in extortion and bribe payments “as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”

The plea agreement also anticipates Tobolski’s cooperation with federal prosecutors, adding him to a growing list of cooperators amid a series of ongoing public corruption investigations being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago. Tobolski is not expected to be sentenced until his cooperation is complete.

Federal prosecutors filed long-anticipated criminal charges against Tobolski last month, accusing him of an extortion conspiracy and filing a false income tax return for the year 2018. Though he was expected to eventually plead guilty, it wasn’t clear if he would do so during his arraignment Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber until the hearing began.

Leinenweber conducted the hearing from his 19th floor courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Building. Tobolski appeared by video link because of the pandemic. He could be seen sitting at a conference table at what appeared to be his lawyer’s office. The audio of the hearing was garbled at times, and a prosecutor had to clarify some facts of the case after explaining them to the judge.


Those details are laid out in Tobolski’s plea agreement, though. It alleges an extortion scheme involving Tobolski, in his role as McCook mayor and liquor commissioner, as well as a McCook police officer and restaurant owner. That restaurant signed a five-year deal with McCook in 2013 to use McCook-owned property, according to the plea deal. The document does not name the police officer, the restaurant or its owner.

In 2016, the restaurant owner asked permission from Tobolski and the police officer to host events that involved the sale of alcohol at the McCook restaurant. The police officer told Tobolski that the restaurant owner would pay for that permission. Tobolski agreed to give his permission in exchange for the payments, according to the plea agreement. The police officer met with Tobolski periodically to pass along cash the police officer said was from the restaurant owner.

The plea agreement also said Tobolski made at least $279,668 in 2018 — more than $10,000 of which came from bribes — but only reported $214,270 on his tax return that year. He also filed false tax returns from 2012 through 2017. From 2012 to 2018, the plea agreement says Tobolski’s false returns cost the IRS a total of $56,268 and the Illinois Department of Revenue a total of $9,338.

Tobolski resigned in March from his posts on the Cook County Board and in McCook, months after federal agents searched his offices at McCook’s Village Hall. Agents also seized $55,205 in cash from Tobolski’s home at that time, including $51,611 taken “from within a safe,” according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.