The bribery trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza has been moved to January of next year after prosecutors requested more time to get the new U.S. attorney “up to speed.”
La Schiazza’s first trial, on charges of bribing ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, ended in September with a hung jury. In December, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman rejected the former utility executive’s long-shot bid for an acquittal and set a trial for June.
Prosecutors on Thursday requested that Gettleman move the trial date to allow for continued time to work on the case and get new interim U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros “up to speed.” Boutros took over as Chicago’s new top federal prosecutor just last week, and since then, has “been drinking from a fire hose,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman.
Gettleman also noted that a June trial would have coincided with sentencing in Madigan’s corruption case. The defensede did not object to the delay.
The trial will now begin on Jan. 6 and is expected to last about two weeks. Gettleman denied a motion to change the venue of the trial because of widespread publicity.
At the heart of the case against La Schiazza is legislation AT&T pushed in 2017 to help the utility end its costly obligation to provide landline telephone service to all Illinois residents. It was known as its Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, bill.
Prosecutors say La Schiazza bribed Madigan in 2017 by paying $22,500 to former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo while trying to finally pass the COLR legislation. They alleged Madigan wanted to help Acevedo because of the increasing Latino population in Madigan’s district.
Jurors heard from more than a dozen witnesses over four days in September. After deliberating for three days, the jury said there was “no possibility of coming to a unanimous verdict,” and Gettleman declared a mistrial.
Gettleman was prepared to rule on some motions filed by the parties Thursday, but said he was still struggling with those related to revised jury instructions.
He told both sides he and his clerks were attempting to make instructions “a little simpler.” Three of the last four corruption trials at Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse have ended without a conviction.
“I think these instructions are almost inherently confusing,” Gettleman said Thursday. “I don’t want another hung jury.”
Just last week, the federal bribery trial of Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III ended in a mistrial.
The mistrial followed nearly 23 hours of deliberations over four days, as well as a two-hour process in U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood’s courtroom where she and lawyers tried to determine what to do about the frustrated jurors struggling over three criminal counts.
A jury in August acquitted Indiana businessman Robert Mitziga, who’d been accused of bribing officials at the Cook County assessor’s office.
Madigan’s own trial ended in February with the former statehouse leader’s historic conviction. But even that trial ended in a partial verdict.