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Cicero kickback questioned Public safety chief not in money loop, federal jury told By Matt O'Connor Tribune staff reporter Published March 27, 2002 An attorney for former Cicero public safety director Emil Schullo blasted the government's case against his client, saying there was no direct evidence that Schullo took any money and raising suspicions of Town President Betty Loren-Maltese's involvement in the alleged kickback scheme. In closing arguments Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Schullo's attorney, Edmund Wanderling, citing telephone records put into evidence, raised questions about a call from co-defendant Michael A. Spano Sr. to Loren-Maltese shortly before 10 percent was added to a bill to Cicero to allegedly cover the kickback. Wanderling implied the money may have gone to Loren-Maltese, saying, "Mike Spano had other avenues than Schullo. He had the town president he knew." Loren-Maltese was not charged in this indictment, but she is awaiting trial in May on charges of looting the town of millions of dollars in an insurance fraud. She has denied any wrongdoing. Schullo is on trial with Spano, the reputed head of organized crime in Cicero, and James Inendino, another alleged mob figure. According to the charges, Schullo received a kickback for steering a contract to a private investigative firm secretly controlled by Spano. The contract was to investigate whether Cicero police officers were living outside of town in violation of a residency requirement. Federal jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations Wednesday after receiving instructions from Judge Ruben Castillo. In his closing remarks, Wanderling also suggested Spano could have pocketed the kickbacks he claimed to be passing to Schullo. Wanderling also argued that federal authorities had failed to follow the money trail, showing how the kickback allegedly went from Spano to Schullo. "Show me the money," he said. Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars told jurors law enforcement was limited in trying to do surveillance in the case in order not "to burn" Sam Rovetuso, a private detective who worked undercover for the government and who wore a hidden recorder and secretly taped conversations. Mars hammered hard at a key undercover tape in which Rovetuso, who died in 1999, told Schullo how his "end"--a reference to the kickback, prosecutors say--was disguised as an equipment expense on an invoice to Cicero. If Schullo was honest, he would have cried foul at that point, Mars said. Mars said Inendino then criticized Rovetuso for being so explicit with Schullo, repeating the conversation "almost verbatim" to him, the prosecutor said. The only way that could have happened, Mars argued, was for Schullo to complain to Spano, who then asked Inendino to relay a warning to Rovetuso. Mars called that "compelling and powerful" circumstantial evidence of Schullo's guilt and his close connections to Spano. Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune |
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