Fitzgerald can now concentrate on his day job: Dismantling Richard Daley's organization and incarcerating his minions.
But Sorich's attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, suggested to Kozicki that prosecutors "wanted to try to indict Mayor Daley and his brother John."
CITY HIRING TRIAL
Spotlight is turned on Daley's brother
Prosecutors asked about him, court told
By Rudolph Bush and Dan Mihalopoulos
Tribune staff reporters
June 13, 2006
Three times this year, federal prosecutors have questioned a high-ranking city official and prominent member of the 11th Ward Democratic Organization about Mayor Richard Daley's brother, John Daley, it was revealed in court Monday. Witness Christopher Kozicki, a former managing deputy in the Buildings Department, did not detail what prosecutors wanted to know about Cook County Commissioner John Daley as he testified in the trial of the mayor's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich.
But Sorich's attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, suggested to Kozicki that prosecutors "wanted to try to indict Mayor Daley and his brother John." U.S. District Judge David Coar sustained prosecutors' objections to that and similar questions.
Prosecutors charge that Sorich and three other former city officials rigged hiring and promotions for many blue-collar city jobs in favor of people who campaigned for groups loyal to the mayor.
The trial has put a spotlight on the mayor's administration and included testimony from several current and former top city officials. The prosecution could call City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges as early as Tuesday.
John Daley's name surfaced as prosecutors sought to treat Kozicki, whom they called to the stand, as a hostile witness.
Prosecutors were surprised by Kozicki's testimony last week that former Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek, and not the mayor's office, was mainly responsible for the 2004 hiring of a young, unqualified building inspector. The testimony Thursday deviated from a sworn statement Kozicki made in February, prosecutors charged.
Prosecutors allege that pressure from Sorich aide Timothy McCarthy and another top Office of Intergovernmental Affairs official prompted the hiring of Andrew Ryan, then 19.
Ryan was hired because his father is a top official in Carpenters' Union Local 13 and despite his lack of experience, Kozicki testified. He said he rigged a job interview to ensure Ryan's hiring.
Kozicki received immunity from prosecution for his cooperation with the government.
But Kozicki's testimony last week was "entirely consistent" with defense arguments in the trial, prosecutors asserted in a court filing Monday.
"Kozicki exaggerated the role of Kaderbek in the hiring of Andrew Ryan and minimized the role of [Intergovernmental Affairs] in hiring generally," prosecutors charged.
Back in court Monday, Kozicki insisted that he has consistently told prosecutors that Kaderbek was the "driving force" behind Ryan's hiring.
Prosecutors suggested that Kozicki's political allegiances colored his testimony. Assistant U.S. Atty. Philip Guentert asked Kozicki about those connections on the stand, particularly his work as secretary to the Democratic organization in the Daley family's traditional 11th Ward power base. John Daley leads the 11th Ward Democratic Organization, whose members include Sorich and McCarthy, a co-defendant.
Kozicki acknowledged that, like Sorich, he used to drive John Daley from his home in the Bridgeport neighborhood to his office downtown.
"While you were working for John Daley, that was also one of your responsibilities?" Guentert asked.
"It was not a responsibility, but I did it," Kozicki responded.
On cross-examination, Kozicki said he would give John Daley a ride whenever he asked and Kozicki happened to be leaving for work at the same time.
"John Daley's kind of a mooch in that regard?" Durkin asked.
"Yes," Kozicki said.
The hiring of Ryan and another unqualified son of a union official embarrassed the Daley administration. Officials fired Ryan and the other building inspector in September 2004, contending publicly that they had been duped into hiring them.
After the scandal broke, Kozicki said, Buildings Department spokeswoman Breelyn Pete instructed him to tell reporters that he was unaware Ryan's father was a top union official.
"You were given orders to effectively lie to the press?" Durkin asked.
"Yes," Kozicki replied.
Pete, who is now vice president at the Chicago Children's Museum, said when reached by telephone that she never gave Kozicki that instruction.
Kozicki recently was reassigned to a high-level post in the city Planning Department.
After his testimony, jurors heard from a man who said he unsuccessfully applied for the building inspector openings in 2004. Jeffrey Harness said the city rejected him for the $50,000-a-year post despite a resume that listed 17 years of experience in the building trades and familiarity with the city building code.
Harness later told reporters that he was "a little angry" that he was passed over in favor of a teenager. "At that age, you're not really qualified to be in a position where people's lives are at stake," Harness said.
Also Monday, a former city computer technician testified that he removed a program from Sorich's laptop computer in 2002. The program tracked city job seekers by their race and political affiliation, according to witness Ben Campney.
He said he created the program after Daley was elected mayor in 1989 at the request of top Daley political aide Timothy Degnan. Campney said that, during a 2002 meeting in Sorich's office, he deleted the program and its files from Sorich's laptop at his request.
"Robert joked that, after this was over, we would throw the hard drives in Lake Michigan," Campney said.
Campney testified that he did not talk about the 2002 meeting with Sorich when federal investigators first interviewed him last year. He only told them about it in April.
Under cross-examination by Durkin, Campney said he did not deliberately lie to authorities in his first meeting with them but had `needed more time to think about it.'"
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rrbush@tribune.com
dmihalopoulos@tribune.com
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