Today
marks an important anniversary in the annals of
public corruption investigations in the U.S.
Twenty
years ago today, in a federal courtroom in Chicago,
a jury found Harold Conn (top center in photo)
guilty on all 4 counts of accepting bribes to
be passed on to Cook County judges as payment
for fixing tickets. The evidence? He had been
caught live on FBI tapes.
This
"bagman" had been Deputy Traffic Court
Clerk in the Cook County judicial system, and
he was the first defendant to be found guilty
in a mammoth sting investigation of crooked officials
in the Cook County courts.
It
was called OPERATION GREYLORD, named
after the curly wigs worn by British judges. And
in the end -- through undercover operations that
used honest and very courageous judges and lawyers
posing as crooked ones... and with the strong
assistance of the Cook County court and local
police -- 92 officials had been indicted, including
17 judges, 48 lawyers, 8 policemen, 10 deputy
sheriffs, 8 court officials, and 1 state legislator.
Nearly all were convicted, most of them pleading
guilty (just a few are shown in our photo). It
was an important first step to cleaning up the
administration of justice in Cook County.
That's
really the whole point. Abuse of the
public trust cannot and must not be tolerated.
Corrupt practices in government strike at the
heart of social order and justice. And that's
why the FBI has the ticket on investigations of
public corruption as a top priority.
How'd
that happen? Historically, of course,
these cases were considered local matters. A county
court clerk taking bribes? Let the county handle
it.
But
in the 1970s, state and local officials asked
for help. They didn't have the resources to handle
such intense cases, and they valued the authority
and credibility that outside investigators brought
to the table. By 1976, the Department of Justice
had created a Public Integrity Section, and the
FBI was tasked with the investigations, focusing
on major, systemic corruption in the body politic.
Who's
investigated? Public servants: members
of Congress and state legislatures; members of
the Administration and governors’ offices;
judges and court staffs; all of law enforcement;
all government agencies. Plus everyone who works
with government and is willing to pay for "special
favors": lobbyists, contractors, consultants,
lawyers, U.S. businesses in foreign countries,
you name it.
What kind of crimes? Bribery,
kickbacks, and fraud. Vote buying, voter intimidation,
impersonation. Political coercion. Racketeering
and obstruction of justice. Trafficking of illegal
drugs.
How
serious of a problem is it? Last year
the FBI investigated 850 cases; brought in 655
indictments/informations; and got 525 who were
either convicted or chose to plead.
Last
words: Straight from Teddy Roosevelt:
"Unless a man is honest we have no right
to keep him in public life, it matters not how
brilliant his capacity, it hardly matters how
great his power of doing good service on certain
lines may be... No man who is corrupt, no man
who condones corruption in others, can possibly
do his duty by the community."
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