Convicted Ald. Burke worthy of ‘leniency,’ ex-mayoral candidate Paul Vallas says

CHICAGO — Former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas told a federal judge that convicted former Ald. Ed Burke is “worthy of any leniency you see fit to provide” in a letter unsealed Tuesday.

Burke, 80, is scheduled to be sentenced in June after being convicted last December on 13 of 14 corruption counts, including racketeering.

“I am, of course, well aware of the criminal conviction,” Vallas wrote to Judge Virginia Kendall earlier this month. “I have every confidence that Your Honor will make the correct sentencing decision based on the evidence.”

Ed Burke found guilty on 13 of 14 counts in federal corruption trial

Much of Vallas’ three-page letter details his past as the city’s budget director and former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He wrote that he met Burke and his wife, former Illinois Supreme Court justice Anne Burke, in 1992 when Richard M. Daley was mayor.

“Ed was a true professional whom I always felt met my standards for ethics,” Vallas wrote.

Vallas wrote that he and Burke were “good friends” and expressed gratitude for the comfort Burke and his wife offered when Vallas lost a son in 2018 at the age of 25.

“Given that they also had lost a son too early, their empathy was boundless. Their care, and the time they took to repeatedly express it, made a difference in our time of immense grief,” he wrote.

Vallas lost to Mayor Brandon Johnson in last year’s election.

In addition to Vallas’ letter, WGN has obtained two others. Jim “Skinny” Sheahan, a chairman for the Special Olympics of Chicago, urged Kendall to allow Burke to work with the organization.

“It makes more sense than sending an eighty year old guy to jail,” Sheahan wrote in a handwritten message.

But another letter was not so supportive of Burke. One letter writer, Jim FitzGerald, told Kendall that “we’re a lot poorer and a lot less free because of the chokehold Ed Burke and his conspiracy of political corruption has had on our city.”

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