Ex-Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson reports to federal prison

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson has become the latest Chicago politician — and the first ever named Daley — to check in at a federal prison.

Thompson, who was sentenced to 4 months in prison in July for tax-related offenses, surrendered Monday at the low security facility in Oxford, Wisconsin, which has housed a lengthy list of crooked Illinois elected officials, mobsters and other high-profile prisoners over the years.

Because his sentence was under one year, Thompson, 53, must serve most or all of it. Barring any behavioral issues he should be out in time for Christmas — something his lawyer said was important to him.

Patrick Daley Thompson, former 11th Ward alderman and scion of the Daley political dynasty, was sentenced July 6 to four months in prison for tax evasion and lying to banking regulators.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama made Thompson the first member of the Daley family to go to prison, a prospect that would have been unfathomable to many when the family was at its political zenith.

Thompson, the grandson and nephew of Chicago’s two longest-serving mayors, was convicted by a federal jury in February of two counts of lying to federal regulators about loans he had with the now-shuttered Washington Federal Bank for Savings in his family’s Bridgeport neighborhood.

The jury also found Thompson guilty on five counts of filing false tax returns that illegally claimed mortgage interest deductions he never paid.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com