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Cicero kickbacks jury to get case today

March 27, 2002

BY STEVE WARMBIR FEDERAL COURTS REPORTER

Private detective Sam Rovetuso was sitting down with Cicero Police Chief Emil Schullo, going over his bill to the city for his services, federal prosecutors say, and an unusual expense had been tacked on.

"This is the number of hours we're billing," Rovetuso can be heard explaining to Schullo in the taped 1995 conversation as he goes through the invoice. "This is the expense for the vehicles. Gas, mileage, the vehicles' per diem. This item down here, this is, uh, I, I guess your end"--referring, prosecutors maintain, to a kickback for the chief disguised as expense.

"OK," the chief eventually is heard to reply.

What the chief didn't know was that Rovetuso, a felon, was working for the federal government and secretly recording his conversations. That exchange took center stage Tuesday as prosecutors and defense attorneys offered closing arguments in the theft and bribery trial in which the former police chief, alleged Cicero mob boss Michael Spano Sr. and convicted loan shark James Inendino are defendants.

The jury, which hasn't been informed of any mob allegations, is expected to start deliberations today.

Prosecutors Mitchell Mars and David Buvinger told the jury that Schullo took kickbacks to steer a contract to check out whether three Cicero police officers met the town's residency requirements. The detective agency that got the contract secretly was controlled by Spano, the prosecutors maintain, and had virtually no experience, so Spano's friend, Inendino, brought in a private detective Inendino knew, Rovetuso, to do the work.

Defense attorneys blasted Rovetuso on Tuesday as a con artist who tried to get their clients to say incriminating things on tape, but failed. The attorneys said the 69 recordings played in the trial were a lot of words that say very little.

"There's an old saying: 'You can't make chicken pie out of chicken . . .' '' Schullo's attorney, Ed Wanderling, said, adding, "if you know where I'm going."

Wanderling said that in the conversation allegedly about kickbacks, it's unclear what the chief is responding to when he says, "OK."

Mars scoffed at that, questioning why the chief wouldn't have arrested Rovetuso for mentioning a kickback, or at least why he didn't end the contract immediately.