Jurors held their first full day of deliberations Tuesday in the racketeering case of ex-Ald. Edward Burke, the longtime City Council powerhouse charged with abusing his substantial clout for his own personal gain.
The panel of nine women and three men have now deliberated for about 10 1/2 hours over two days without reaching a verdict.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall said the jury sent a note soon after arriving at 9 a.m. asking for additional copies of the indictment.
The panel sent its first substantive note to the judge less than an hour later, asking for clarification about a count charging co-defendant Charles Cui with using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
The count required the jury to determine whether Burke accepted property from Cui “that he was not authorized by law to accept” and took “a fee or reward which he knows is not authorized by law.” In their note, jurors asked for a definition of the phrase “not authorized by law.”
After lengthy arguments from prosecutors and Burke’s attorneys, Kendall ultimately sided with Cui’s lawyers, who asked her to tell jurors only that the answers are in the instructions they already received.
The question reflects just how complicated some of the jury’s findings have to be. And it was a reminder that, while the count at issue charges only Cui with a crime, Burke’s alleged actions and his status as alderman underlie everything about the case.
Just before 3 p.m. Tuesday, jurors sent out a third note, asking whether Amtrak employees are considered public officers. After a brief discussion, Kendall agreed to tell them that the answer is no.
Amtrak came into play during evidence about the $600 million renovation of the Old Post Office. Since the project sits over train tracks that run to and from Union Station, the redevelopers had to deal with Amtrak extensively and ran into significant bureaucratic hurdles.
Prosecutors allege that Burke worked to smooth the way for the developers in a scheme to get their legal business for his firm.
The jury was previously instructed that the term “public officer” is a person who is elected to office by law to discharge a public duty, so Amtrak does not qualify.
After discussing the last note, attorney Todd Pugh, who represents Burke’s co-defendant Peter Andrews Jr., told the judge his client was in the hospital. He did not disclose why in open court, but said things were “not as bad” as initially thought and he might be discharged. Andrews’ appearance has been waived for now.
Pugh declined to comment further on Andrews’ condition after the hearing.
Deliberations are expected to last for days. The charges against Burke and his co-defendants are substantial and complicated; it took Kendall nearly four hours on Monday to read the jury instructions alone.
They must sort through the 19 counts in the case, which include 14 counts against Burke and a combination of other charges involving Andrews and Cui.
At the heart of the case were dozens of wiretapped phone calls and secretly recorded meetings made by Daniel Solis, the former 25th Ward alderman who turned FBI mole after being confronted in 2016 with his own wrongdoing.
With Christmas week looming, Kendall told the panel last week they should not feel rushed in their discussions, particularly after a six-week trial, so if there is no verdict by Friday, they would not come back until after New Year’s.
“I don’t want you to think I’m going to be Scrooge if you want to take a long time,” the judge said. “I’m not going to make you sit Christmas week. I don’t want anybody to be stressed that you can’t be with your families.”
Burke, 79, who served 54 years as alderman before leaving the City Council in May, is charged with 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
Andrews, 74, is charged with one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
Cui, 52, is facing counts of federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and making false statements to the FBI.
The racketeering charge alleges Burke used his significant City Hall power to try to get business for his private law firm from developers.
The indictment alleges Burke and Andrews conspired to extort the Texas-based owners of a Burger King in his Southwest Side 14th Ward, and in a separate scheme, Cui is accused of hiring Burke’s firm, Klafter & Burke, because he was desperate to win a pole sign permit for a Binny’s Beverage Depot in Portage Park.
Burke is also accused of threatening to block an admission fee increase at the Field Museum in retaliation against officials who failed to give a paid internship to a daughter of one of his longtime City Council allies.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
rlong@chicagotribune.com
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