Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III took the stand in his own defense Tuesday as his bribery trial wound to a close, telling jurors he “always wanted to be a state senator like my father.”
The son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr. gave jurors a lesson in Springfield 101. He told jurors how he once sold license plates for the Illinois Secretary of State. And he acknowledged his interest in flight school in the summer of 2019, which jurors have heard about on secret FBI recordings.
But before U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood sent jurors home for the night, the South Side Democrat only ventured near the substance of the case against him when he testified about red-light cameras. He told jurors he once saw a report indicating a camera could make more than $50,000 off violations in a single day. And he said companies were making “millions and millions of dollars” off them.
At least one juror in the case complained about red-light camera tickets during jury selection.
Jones III, who filed a bill in February 2019 that a red-light camera executive saw as bad for business, is expected to resume his testimony Wednesday morning. He took the stand shortly after prosecutors rested their case against him, having called five witnesses over five days. When Jones III’s testimony is complete, lawyers will likely turn to closing arguments.
Meanwhile, the senator’s decision seems to signal a new trend among public corruption defendants at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Jones III took the stand three months after former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan made the same move during his own trial earlier this year.
Members of Jones III’s defense team likely believe testifying is Jones III’s best move before his case lands in the hands of the jury. However, it also comes with risks. If convicted, prosecutors could accuse him of perjury and argue for an enhanced sentence.
Madigan’s trial ended in a split verdict, with jurors convicting him of a bribery conspiracy but failing to agree on a broader racketeering conspiracy charge. Still, Madigan faces sentencing in June, and prosecutors already told jurors in closing arguments that he lied to them.
In this latest trial, prosecutors say Jones III agreed to protect red-light camera businessman Omar Maani in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for a former intern of Jones’. The former intern wound up being paid $1,800 even though he did no work.
Jones III has been in office since 2009. He took over his father’s seat in Senate after the elder Jones announced his retirement in 2008. On the stand Tuesday, Jones III told jurors he “never had an opponent” run against him.
The younger Jones testified that he was a member of four committees in 2019. He chaired the Licensed Activities Committee, and he was also a member of the Transportation, Local Government and Education committees.
Asked for examples of what would go through the transportation committee, Jones III mentioned the “red-light camera bill.”
Jones III said former Senate President John Cullerton championed red light cameras “to increase safety.” But Jones III noted that his constituents wound up with tickets.
Prosecutors have also accused Jones III of lying to the FBI. Earlier Tuesday, jurors heard Jones III’s recorded interview with FBI agents on Sept. 24, 2019.
While speaking to the agents, Jones III acknowledged much about discussions he’d had that summer with Maani and then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval. However, Jones III denied that he and Maani had agreed on an amount for Maani to raise for Jones III’s campaign.
“Did Omar say, like, ‘Hey, you know, what’s it gonna take?’” FBI Special Agent Timothy O’Brien said during the interview. “… Did you guys come up with an amount that he was going to donate for a fundraiser or anything like that?”
“No, no, no,” Jones III said.
But jurors have also heard a recorded conversation between Jones and Maani from July 2019, in which Jones III said, “If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good.”
Jones III also told the FBI in September 2019 that he “didn’t imply the bill would go away” if Maani hired the former intern.
That seems to contradict another recording heard by jurors, in which Maani told Jones in August 2019 that he’d help the intern “100%.”
“And like I said before,” Maani added, “if you could just help me out with the, ah, the study to make it to Chicago.”
“You’re good,” Jones III told Maani at the time.
On the whole, the trial of Jones III has exposed another panel of jurors to the raw type of Illinois politics repeatedly caught on FBI cameras in the last decade. It revealed details of a relationship between Jones III and the former intern who worked for him in 2014 and 2018. They swapped text messages late one night in July 2019, when the ex-intern asked Jones for money while visiting a strip club.
Jones III was 41 at the time, and he had been in office for 10 years. The former intern, Christopher Katz, was 23.
“I want to hang out with u,” Jones III told Katz in a text message shortly after 10 p.m. on July 6, 2019. Four hours later, a little after 2 a.m. on July 7, 2019, Katz told Jones III by text he was still at the club.
“I want to see u after,” Jones III wrote back.
Jones III testified Tuesday that he would hire interns “every summer.”
Asked why, he said had extra money in his budget and “thought the best way to spend the money was spend it to my constituents.”
Jurors in the case have also heard from one of the feds’ most prolific undercover informants, Maani, a businessman who has admitted giving “benefits” to several public officials across Chicago’s suburbs. He wore a wire for the FBI and struck a deal with prosecutors that saved him from a conviction.
Maani insisted on the stand that he “never, voluntarily, just decided to give [officials] money.
“They always asked me for money,” Maani told the jury. “They asked for money, and I capitulated, and I agreed to give it to them after they asked me.”