Page 6 - Celeste Bott News Today

Jurors delivered sweeping guilty verdicts against Commonwealth Edison's former top executive and three of its former lobbyists Tuesday on charges they bribed ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, drawing a decisive line between building goodwill with elected officials and corruptly influencing them as prosecutors prepare for Madigan's racketeering trial next year, white collar experts say.

An Illinois federal judge didn't mince words when he discovered Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym Ltd. attorneys amended a trademark infringement suit before his court to drop hundreds of online retailer defendants and filed a new complaint to secure a more favorable restraining order bond ruling with a different judge, warning of "some pretty serious professional consequences" if it happened again.

Chicago federal jurors convicted Commonwealth Edison's former CEO and three of its former lobbyists Tuesday of conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a verdict that capped a high-profile trial packed with more than 100 secretly recorded conversations and insights into the legislative kingmaker's political operation.

Judges and court staff in Illinois' Circuit Court of Cook County have been ordered to return to mostly in-person work starting on May 14, with a more-permanent phase-out of remote work in June, as the court has opted to end the emergency measures it put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19.

An Illinois appellate panel has reversed an $800,000 jury award and ordered a new trial for a disabled woman who suffered shoulder injuries and required physical therapy after a car hit her, saying she'd conceded the lower court shouldn't have barred certain expert impeachment evidence at trial.

Commonwealth Edison's former CEO and three of its former lobbyists are simply "collateral damage" in the federal government's pursuit of powerful ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, and the bribery conspiracy charges they face reflect prosecutors' attempt to criminalize politics and legal lobbying, Chicago federal jurors heard Monday.

Prosecutors urged a Chicago federal jury not to be fooled by arguments raised by Commonwealth Edison's former CEO and lobbyists that jobs and benefits arranged for associates of Illinois' ex-House speaker reflected ordinary business and legal lobbying, likening it to a game of chess in which they were "grandmasters" of corruption.

Former Commonwealth Edison Co. and Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore claimed Tuesday that she had forgotten about a 2019 phone call in which another executive told her that subcontractors under one of the utility's lobbyists had been paid for years for doing no work when she denied knowing about them in a subsequent interview with federal investigators.

Former Commonwealth Edison Co. and Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore denied bribing or conspiring to influence ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan while taking the stand in her own defense Monday, saying she never authorized hiring anyone on his recommendation, thinking they wouldn't work or provide value to the company.

A top ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan testified Tuesday that he received payments for roughly seven years from Commonwealth Edison despite doing almost no work for the utility, with Madigan allegedly saying he controlled the arrangement.