Vrdolyak Skates

Senior Federal Judge Milton Shadur sentence former Alderman Ed Vrdolyak to 5 years probation ripping into the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the lack of seriousness of the crime.

There was also a $50,000 fine, which WBBM-Radio reporter John Cody said was one month’s income for Vrdolyak.

The toughest part of the sentence to comply with will probably be the 2,500 hours of community service.

People work about 2,020 hours a year.

Fifty people wrote letters in support of lenient sentencing, WBEZ reports.

The sentence clearly did not meet with approval of United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald issued the following statement:

“We strongly but respectfully disagree with the sentence of probation imposed on defendant Vrdolyak. 

“As we argued in court, we believe a sentence of incarceration was appropriate for a defendant who schemed to share a $1.5 million fee with a corrupt insider involving the sale of a non-profit university’s valuable real estate asset.”

Vrdolyak has already given up his law license.

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The happy smile on the Chicago Sun-Times the day in August of 2006 when the story about the federal investigation of Edward Vrdolyak broke probably seems more appropriate today than then.


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