South Side Ald. Willie Cochran on Thursday became the latest in a long line of City Council members to bear an ignominious but all-too-familiar title:
Convicted felon.
Despite some obvious reservations, Cochran pleaded guilty to a charge of wire fraud for misusing his ward’s charity fund to pay for gambling and other personal expenses. (This sentence has been corrected.) By state law, Cochran officially resigned from his City Council seat with his felony conviction.
In return for the guilty plea, federal prosecutors dropped 14 of the 15 counts against Cochran, including the most serious charges alleging the alderman shook down businessmen in exchange for his support on deals in his 20th Ward.
The plea agreement calls for Cochran to be sentenced to anywhere from probation to between 1 to 1 ½ years in prison — a significant break on a case that could have landed him behind bars for 10 years or more if he was convicted of all counts at trial.
With the guilty plea, Cochran becomes Chicago’s 30th alderman since 1972 to be convicted of crimes related to official duties. Several other former aldermen, including Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak and Democratic stalwart William Beavers, were convicted of crimes after leaving the City Council.
The guilty plea comes amid a separate, potentially far-reaching federal probe at City Hall that has already swept up two of Cochran’s fellow aldermen — Edward Burke and Daniel Solis. Burke has pleaded not guilty to charges, while Solis, who wore a wire while working undercover for the FBI for two years, has not been charged.
Despite the lenient outcome for Cochran, it appeared for a while that he might not go through with the guilty plea. He had passed up a similar deal in November and seemed to stumble Thursday at some of the judge’s routine questions. When asked about his physical health, Cochran, who said he’s been taking medication for anxiety, paused and said, “Ah, could be better.”
After prosecutors recited the facts contained in the plea agreement — including that Cochran stole $14,000 in charitable donations to the 20th Ward Activities Fund meant to go to poor children and seniors — U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso asked Cochran if what they said was true.
“Uh, for the most part, yes, sir,” Cochran said, prompting his attorney, Christopher Grohman, to ask for a recess so the two could confer.
When the case was re-called, Cochran was still hemming about one specific donation referred to in the plea agreement. Alonso said that to clear up any confusion, he wanted Cochran to tell him in his own words what he did wrong. That led to another longer recess while Cochran huddled again with his attorney to prepare a written statement.
When court resumed, Cochran, reading from a sheet of paper, finally admitted that he took a donation from a person identified in court only as Individual I and used some of it to withdraw cash from an Indiana casino.
“Does that cover it?” asked Cochran, looking up from the statement.
Alonso accepted the guilty plea and set sentencing for June 20.
Cochran kept his council seat — and $117,000 salary — for more than two years while fighting the charges.
He left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse without speaking to reporters, but in a written statement released by his attorney, Cochran said he was “happy” that prosecutors had dismissed the extortion counts, saying they were based on “unreliable testimony.”
“Alderman Cochran has always steadfastly denied taking any bribes and continues to do so,” the statement read. He also said he “looks forward” to repaying the $14,000 he took from the ward fund and “putting this saga behind him.”
A former Chicago police officer elected to the City Council in 2007, Cochran was indicted in December 2016 on an array of charges, including extortion and bribery. An FBI affidavit made public in 2017 said Cochran at one point demanded $5,000 from a store owner, writing in a text message, “I need your help, whatever you can do.”
But those allegations were dropped from Cochran’s 17-page plea agreement. Instead, he admitted only to looting his ward’s charitable fund, which was supposed to be used to host events “including a summer back-to-school picnic, a Valentine’s Day event for senior citizens, and events during the holiday season each November and December,” the plea deal said.
Cochran admitted using the charitable fund to pay for personal expenses, including college tuition for his daughter, withdrawing cash from casino ATMs and to “purchase items for his personal residence,” according to the plea agreement. Though he had personally donated about $32,000 to the fund, the amount he spent on himself exceeded his contributions by $14,285, according to the plea deal.
The plea agreement, however, made no mention of other details that had been alleged in a 2016 FBI search warrant affidavit — that he had used the ward fund to buy tires and a chrome fog lamp bumper ring for his Mercedes as well as vases, lamps, artwork from Z Gallerie, a “compact juice fountain” from Crate & Barrel and $67 worth of compact discs at Best Buy — including an album titled “Call Me Irresponsible.”
Cochran becomes the third 20th Ward alderman since 1987 to be convicted of federal corruption charges, following Clifford Kelley and Arenda Troutman, who was infamously recorded by federal agents saying, “Most politicians are hos.”
This story and its headline incorrectly described the funds Willie Cochran was accused of misusing. The money was taken from a ward charity. The Tribune regrets the error.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @jmetr22b
