Early letters sent in support of convicted ex-Ald. Ed Burke include one from Paul Vallas
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Several letters in support of convicted former Chicago Ald. Edward Burke were made public Tuesday in advance of his sentencing hearing in June, including one from former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas who wrote Burke’s “professional impact on Chicago is a great legacy.”
Another letter writer, longtime Democratic political operative James “Skinny” Sheahan, told the judge in a handwritten note that he knew almost nothing about Burke’s corruption case, but that Burke would be better off working with Sheahan at the Special Olympics Chicago than going off to prison.
“It makes more sense than sending an eighty year old guy to jail,” Sheahan wrote. “We could keep him very busy.”
Not all of the letters sang Burke’s praises or asked the judge to give him mercy, including one signed by Jim FitzGerald, a self-described city resident who wrote: “I’ve paid the Chicago Graft Tax for far too long.”
“Ed Burke did not create graft in Chicago, but he perfected its application, he mentored its practitioners, and he perpetuated and reinforced an entrenched culture of political corruption, all to the detriment of millions of Chicagoans, and all for his own benefit,” FitzGerald wrote.
“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,” FitzGerald wrote, adding: “Burke didn’t leave one victim bleeding, he bled out an entire city” and deserves to spend time in prison.
FitzGerald called for the judge to send a message that the “days of old-school Chicago-style corruption will no longer be tolerated.”
The letters were made public hours after attorneys conferred with U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall about whether there was a reason they should remain under seal.
Last week, attorney Steven Mandell filed a motion on behalf of the Sun-Times and WBEZ arguing there is a long-standing presumption under the First Amendment that such letters should be open to public scrutiny, particularly if the judge is going to consider them in fashioning a sentence for a high-profile defendant like Burke.
“The authors of the letters in this proceeding are likely to include public figures or officials, who have the means to respond to any controversy, and the public has a heightened interest in knowing their statements as well,” Mandell argued in the filing Friday.
Kendall said Tuesday that three of the letters had come directly to her chambers and that she put them under seal “out of an abundance of caution” in case there was personal or sensitive information in them.
Burke’s lawyer, Robin Waters, said their team is still cultivating a much larger batch of letters that will be filed with the court, and that except for minor redactions like medical information, home addresses or birth dates, or information about minors, they will be fully available on the public docket.
“The vast majority will be fully unredacted,” Waters said.
Burke, 80, was convicted in December of racketeering conspiracy, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
Kendall is scheduled to sentence him June 24.
In his letter to the court, Vallas, the former city budget director and Chicago Public Schools chief who lost a runoff election to Mayor Brandon Johnson last year, wrote that he’s known Burke since 1992 and found him to be “a true professional” who encouraged him to do the right thing “no matter how powerful were the feathers I ruffled.”
“Especially in my younger years, when I was new to City Hall, Ed’s support and advice was very comforting as I learned to navigate Chicago’s treacherous political waters,” Vallas wrote.
Vallas wrote that he and Burke kept in close contact even after Vallas left Chicago for stints in New Orleans and elsewhere, and that Burke always cared not only for his own constituents, “but for all of Chicago and the success of our great city.”
“I am, of course, well aware of the criminal conviction,” Vallas said. “But I will tell you without hesitation, that given my years of first hand observation of Ed’s body of civic and charitable contributions … Ed is worthy of whatever leniency you see fit to provide.”
Unlike Vallas, Sheahan, the brother of former Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan, told the judge, “I really know nothing about (Burke’s) case,” despite having known Burke personally for “about 40 years.”
“We have not always been on the same team politically, but working with him in City Hall, I found him to be great,” wrote Sheahan, who served several roles for then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and is known as “Skinny” for his thin stature.
Sheahan noted that Burke had always been a supporter of the Special Olympics Chicago, where Sheahan serves as development director, and that they could use his help “finding support for Chicago’s 4,500 athletes.”
“I know the alderman could be a great asset,” Sheahan said, adding in a postscript he had “not discussed this letter or proposal with anyone.”
The issue of letters being withheld from the public came up recently in the case against another high-profile defendant, Tim Mapes, the former chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan who was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury.
Letters that were submitted ahead of Mapes’ sentencing last year were initially filed under seal, but were later made public in redacted form by order of U.S. District Judge John Kness.
Among those who supported Mapes were Illinois Appellate Judge David Ellis, who once served as Madigan’s chief House counsel, and former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride, who received millions of dollars from Madigan-backed campaign contributions over three races for the high court.
Multiple ex-legislators also sent letters, as did Karen Yarbrough, the then-Cook County clerk who died on April 7.
Mapes was ultimately given 30 months in prison.
