Feds Probe Ryan's Choice of Prison Site

Article Tools Print This Page | Comments(0) | Suggest a Story

By Associated Press

Published: 07/02/2003

Former Gov. George Ryan's choice of Grayville in southern Illinois as the site of a state prison, a decision urged by an old friend who is also a lobbyist, has come under federal investigation.
The Grayville investigation is part of the federal government's larger Operation Safe Road, an inquiry into corruption under Ryan going back to the early 1990s when he first became Illinois secretary of state.
Lobbying that preceded the April 2001 decision to place the state's new maximum security prison in the small White County community has been a focus of the investigation, according to two witnesses.
Former state Rep. Roscoe Cunningham, R-Lawrenceville, and Grayville Mayor Joe Bisch both said they were subpoenaed and later interviewed by federal prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald concerning what they knew about the decision on where to place the prison.
They also said they were asked about their relations with former state Sen. Arthur R. Swanson, a lobbyist and longtime friend of Ryan's.
'I told him I knew absolutely nothing,'' Cunningham said June17 by telephone. 'I am as pure as the driven slush,'' he added, sarcastically.
He said his interview took place June 9.
According to lobbying records on file with the state, Swanson, a former state senator, was retained by the late Dr. Clyde W. Wilson, a southern Illinois landowner and outspoken proponent of Grayville as the prison site.
Swanson was questioned by a federal grand jury about Grayville and a number of other matters, according to a source close to the investigation who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The source said Swanson told the grand jury he was hired by Wilson to lobby on behalf of the Grayville project and there was nothing unusual about the arrangement.
But the source said prosecutors were dissatisfied with answers Swanson provided and have made him the target of a federal perjury investigation. Swanson, reached by telephone, declined to comment and referred all questions to his lawyer, criminal defense attorney James R. Streicker.
Streicker and Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, both declined to comment. Wilson's wife, Lucille, did not return a call June 17. Ryan's phone went unanswered on the same night.
The former governor also is a former legislator who has been friends with Swanson for years. Swanson's son worked in the secretary of state's office under Ryan.
Ryan also proposed in 2002 to spend $20.9 million to buy the Lincoln Tower office complex near the Statehouse in Springfield in a deal that could have paid Swanson up to $1.7 million as its broker.
The plan fizzled out and the Chicago Tribune reported in January that records of the Lincoln Tower plan had been subpoenaed by the grand jury.
Swanson contributed $1,000 to Ryan's campaign for governor on Aug. 12, 1998, and Cunningham contributed $500 on Oct. 27, 1998, according to records at the State Board of Elections.
Cunningham said he wrote to Ryan on Dec. 20, 2000, outlining the case for placing the prison in Grayville.
He said he was asked in his interview with a prosecutor about his contacts with Swanson. He said he had not seen Swanson in many years.
Bisch said he was also asked about Swanson.
'He asked if I knew of him and I said I'd heard his name,'' Bisch said. He said he didn't contribute any money to hire a lobbyist, 'and frankly I don't think much of cities' hiring lobbyists -- I think it's foolish.''
Operation Safe Road investigation began in 1998 when Ryan was a candidate for governor, starting as an inquiry into bribery at drivers license testing stations. Since then, it has expanded into a full-blown probe of corruption under Ryan as secretary of state and in his campaign as well.
So far, 63 individuals have been charged and 57 convicted including Ryan's chief of staff and campaign manager and an inspector general who admitted covering up seven years of scandals to spare Ryan embarrassment. Ryan has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Ryan's announcement before hundreds of cheering Grayville residents in the high school gymnasium capped a furious competition for the prison between communities eager for the jobs and contracts that come with it.
Grayville tried three times without success to become the location of a state prison before finally seeing its efforts crowned with success.
Construction on the planned $140 million prison was halted in April as legislators grappled with the state's budget problems. Local officials say they haven't heard when, if ever, the project will continue.

Comments:

No comments have been posted for this article.

Login to let us know what you think

MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search