Former State Rep. Roger Stanley died Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Stanley served with me for two years in the Illinois House of Representatives in the late 1970’s and became a mail house guy for many prominent Republicans after he lost office.

He was involved in McHenry County in support of Ann Hughes in at least one of her primary races with Steven Robert Verr.

He dummied up a tax group that endorsed Hughes.

He did the same thing against me and that falsification of postal documents that ended up in an indictment.

One time I got a call from a U.S. Postal Inspector, who was in St. Louis on vacation.

He asked me if I remembered some mailing from a “good government” group from one of my campaigns. I did not remember the group’s name, but I did remember the mailing.

I found a copy of it and sent it to him.

As I was reading one of the Safe Roads indictments, I got to one point and said, “That’s my mailing.”

My name wasn’t mentioned, but the circumstances of the mailing was.

Mail fraud.

Stanley was stubborn.  It took two indictments before he was persuaded to flip on Governor George Ryan.

Stanley bribed Crystal Lake’s Don Udsteun over $130,000, starting in the mid-1980’s.

Udsteun turned state’s evidence against Ryan before Stanley.

ROGER STANLEY INDICTED FOR OBSTRUCTING SAFE ROAD PROBE OF SOS OFFICIAL’S PAYMENT FOR 1997 COSTA RICA TRIP

CHICAGO — Chicago area businessman Roger Stanley, a former Republican state representative who did business with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, was indicted today for obstruction of justice in connection with the four-year-old federal public corruption investigation known as Operation Safe Road, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

The single-count indictment alleges that, in response to a September 2001 grand jury subpoena, Stanley caused to be created and provided a document indicating that a high-ranking Secretary of State official reimbursed Stanley $1,500 for expenses incurred relating to a 1997 trip to Costa Rica, when, in fact, Stanley knew that the official, identified only as “Individual A,” made no such payment or reimbursement to him for the trip.

Stanley, 59, of Burr Ridge, will be summoned to appear for arraignment on today’s indictment at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the indictment, Stanley owned or was affiliated with several businesses, including being sole shareholder of Universal Statistical, Inc., also known as Unistat, which provided direct mail services for political campaigns and governmental entities.

Beginning in August 1994, the SOS Office awarded direct mail-related contracts, for Stanley’s financial benefit, relating to the promotion and marketing of the Organ Donor Program, which was designed to develop public awareness for the cause of organ donations.

To conceal Stanley’s participation and financial benefit in the organ donor contracts, however, the contracts were awarded in the name of Grafcom, an entity known to Stanley.

The indictment also alleges that on Dec. 31, 1996, the SOS Office authorized the hiring of Stanley as an employee of the office for the principal purpose of enhancing his state pension benefits, which were based on the length of his employment with the State of Illinois.

On Jan. 3, 1997, Stanley was placed on the SOS Office payroll, where he remained until Feb. 14, 1997, when he resigned the position after having qualified for the enhanced pension benefits.

During the time Stanley had a business relationship with the SOS Office, he provided free and heavily-subsidized vacations and related vacation benefits to

• Costa Rica;
• Door County, Wisconsin; and
• Lake Ontario, Canada,

to one or more SOS Office officials, including Individual A, who was a guest of Stanley’s on a February 1997 Costa Rican trip, according to the indictment.

Stanley paid for the principal expenses of Individual A on the February 1997 Costa Rican trip, including airfare, lodging, fishing and other expenses.

At no time did Individual A ever reimburse Stanley for expenses incurred on the 1997 trip, the charges allege.

Since the spring of 1998, successive federal grand juries have continued the Operation Safe Road investigation, into allegations of official misconduct, corruption and fraudulent conduct relating to the SOS Office and certain individuals doing business with the SOS Office, including Stanley.

On Sept. 25, 2001, Stanley’s principal business, Unistat, was served with a grand jury subpoena, requesting among other things all information relating to payments made by specified SOS Office officials, including Individual A, for trips to Door County, Lake Ontario and Costa Rica.

On Sept. 25, 2001, Stanley personally received notice of the subpoena and allegedly caused to be gathered and created documents in response to the subpoena, including a document indicating that Individual A reimbursed Stanley $1,500 for expenses incurred relating to the 1997 Costa Rican trip.

The indictment alleges that on Jan. 22 of this year, Stanley corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, and impede the due administration of justice.

Stanley, knowing that his financial relationship with certain SOS Office officials, including Individual A, was material to the grand jury investigation, allegedly caused a Unistat employee to authenticate and describe a false and fraudulent document to federal investigators in response to the Sept. 25, 2001, subpoena.

The false and fraudulent document indicated that Individual A reimbursed defendant Stanley $1,500 for the 1997 Costa Rican trip when, in fact, Stanley knew that Individual A made no payments or reimbursements to him for the trip.

[There’s a bit more to the release, but that’s the guts of it.]