A federal jury on Wednesday convicted a former police chief of southwest suburban Summit, finding him guilty of bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice at the end of a seven-day trial tied to several corruption cases that swept Chicago’s suburbs.
John Kosmowski seemed to close his eyes for an extended period of time after U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger read the three guilty verdicts in a 23rd-floor courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
Kosmowski now faces significant prison time at his sentencing, set for March 27.
A grand jury handed up an indictment against Kosmowski and Summit building inspector William Mundy in 2022, alleging the men conspired in 2017 to use their influence with Summit Village President Sergio Rodriguez to help bar owner Krzystof Hodurek secure a liquor license transfer.
The indictment also accused Kosmowski of obstruction of justice. He’d confronted Mundy outside a wake on March 14, 2022, about the events that would eventually lead to the trial. Mundy, who agreed to cooperate with the feds, secretly recorded the conversation.
“[Hodurek] gave me the money as a loan,” Kosmowski insisted on the recording.
“You think anybody’s gonna buy that?” Mundy told him that day. “… I love you like a brother, but this is f—cked up.”
The case has ties to several others that rocked the suburbs in recent years, including a case against the late Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski and Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III. Tobolski died last month while preparing to serve a four-year prison sentence. Jones’ trial in April ended with a hung jury. He’s due to face a jury again in January.
Mundy pleaded guilty in 2023 to a bribery conspiracy and filing a false tax return, and then he took the stand last week during Kosmowski’s trial, calling Kosmowski’s story about a loan “bullsh–.”
Prosecutors in September also charged Hodurek with a 2020 unemployment insurance scam. He pleaded guilty to the scam but also admitted that he’d conspired to bribe Kosmowski and Mundy to the tune of $15,000. Then, he testified as a federal cooperator in Kosmowski’s trial.
Kosmowski defense attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti previously complained that the feds had interfered with Kosmowski’s defense. She said her team planned to call Hodurek to testify that the money was a loan — but that was before Hodurek learned he might face charges over the unemployment insurance.
When it came time for closing arguments in Kosmowski’s trial Tuesday, defense attorney Thomas Leinenweber told the jury that Mundy and Hodurek could not get their stories straight, including when it came to the amount of the bribe.
“The inconsistencies are there, and the inconsistencies matter,” Leinenweber told the jury. “The inconsistencies — combined with the reason that these two gentlemen are testifying — you have to take great caution with what they’re saying.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Hasten argued that the inconsistencies actually proved the men were earnest in their testimony. Otherwise, he said, “they would be lock-step, every fact would match.”
That’s what Kosmowski tried to accomplish when he confronted Mundy after a wake on March 14, 2022, Mundy testified. Mundy recorded Kosmowski as he asked him, “what’s going on with this thing with [Hodurek]” and said, “we didn’t do anything for him. Remember that.”
“What if he tells the f—ing truth?” Mundy asked.
“What?” Kosmowski replied. “There is no truth.”
Mundy testified that he and Kosmowski agreed to split a $10,000 bribe from Hodurek. But Kosmowski insisted to Mundy in 2022 that he’d actually repaid a $7,000 “loan” from Hodurek.
“John, what about the money I got?” Mundy asked Kosmowski.
Kosmowski told Mundy, “I borrowed you $3,000” but didn’t ask for it back.
Mundy told Kosmowski that, “the f—ing FBI was listening to me for two years” and that, in that moment, it sounded “like we’re trying to line up our stories.”
“No, we’re not lining up our stories,” Kosmowski insisted.
“Here’s the thing,” Kosmowski went on to tell him. “No matter what we say, remember this: It’s gonna be their version against ours. It always is.”