Judge denies Madigan’s motion to remain free pending appeal

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – U.S. District Court Judge John Robert Blakey has denied former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s request to stay out of prison while he appeals his federal conviction on 10 counts of public corruption.

In a 44-page document released on Friday, the judge wrote that Madigan failed to meet his burden to show that his appeal would raise a substantial question of law or fact.

The judge said Madigan identified several issues in his motion, “each of which, according to him, presents a substantial question likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial.”

Blakey noted that the issues largely fell into three categories: claimed instructional errors; insufficiency of the evidence claims as to all counts of conviction; and a singular claim of error with respect to one of this Court’s evidentiary rulings.

The judge’s memorandum addressed and rejected each of the arguments in turn. It also noted “that to prevail on this motion, Madigan must raise a substantial question, “that would result in reversal or a new trial on all counts for which the defendant has been sentenced to prison.”

After a four-month trial which began last October, a jury convicted Madigan Feb. 12 on 10 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity.

“Indeed, the fate of Madigan’s entire motion rides on routine, and meritless, sufficiency of the evidence objections to his wire fraud convictions,” Blakey wrote in the memorandum.

Even if Madigan prevailed on all issues related to his other counts of conviction, the judge said Madigan would still have to serve the 90-month concurrent sentences he received on each of those three counts.

“In other words, since Madigan fails to present any plausible arguments (much less substantial questions) regarding his wire fraud convictions in Counts Eight, Nine, and Ten, he cannot show that any appeal is likely to result in a reversal or grant of a new trial on those counts, and thus he must still serve his prison sentence because the total sentence imposed in this case would remain the same,” the judge explained.

On June 13, Blakey sentenced Madigan to 7.5 years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $2.5 million.

In the memorandum, the judge pointed out what he said were incorrect claims and false assertions by Madigan in his motion for release during appeal.

Blakey also denied the motion on an alternative basis, stating that Madigan failed to comply with court orders by exceeding the 15-page limitation on memoranda of law.

Madigan filed his appeal on July 23. He is scheduled to report to prison on Oct. 13 at 2 p.m.

State Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, has served in the General Assembly since 2010.

“It was a long shot. I’m not surprised that the judge came down hard on him. I mean, I think it’s the end of an era that most of us did not think that we would see, especially many of us that were in the legislature,” Rezin told The Center Square. “It sends a message, again, to Springfield that we need to strengthen our ethics laws, which we’ve been trying to do.”

Brian Gaines, Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics at the University of Illinois, said Madigan was like no other politician when it came to the scope of his power.

“I sometimes compared him to Speaker Unruh in California, Jesse Unruh, who was nicknamed ‘Big Daddy,’ and he had very tight control of the California legislature for years,” Gaines told The Center Square.

Unruh was California State Assembly speaker in the 1960’s and later served as California treasurer.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years. Madigan also led the 13th Ward Democratic Organization and served as 13th Ward committeeman.