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Rosemont mayor wants
to be called
as witness
If testimony is going to center on mob allegations against him, Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens wants to have his own say at a casino license revocation hearing. Stephens has long denied any ties to organized crime, while acknowledging buying a hotel from a nephew of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana in the 1960s. But now he wants to go on record in the Illinois Gaming Board hearing to revoke the license of Emerald Casino, which once sought to build a casino in Rosemont. The agency says Emerald lied to its investigators and sold shares of the casino to people with mob ties. Emerald denies those charges and is fighting for the license. If it recovers the license, it plans to sell it to Isle of Capri, which wants to build a casino in Rosemont. An FBI agent testified last month at the hearing that a mob informant told authorities that Stephens sat down with five members of organized crime and two mob associates at an Elmwood Park restaurant in 1999. The topic of discussion, the informant said, concerned a casino in Rosemont and mob control of its construction and operation. Stephens blasted the allegations, adding he would like to be called as a defense witness. He said it would be only fair if Emerald would call him considering his name has come up. “We asked to intervene so my lawyer could cross-examine some of these people, and Judge (Abner) Mikva said, ‘No.’ Then why does he allow all this testimony about Rosemont, and about me? I just don’t understand it,” Stephens said. Mikva, a former Illinois congressman and former White House counsel in the Clinton administration, is presiding over the hearing. Emerald attorney Robert Clifford couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday, but an attorney at Clifford’s firm working with him on the case said he had no comment. Stephens wore an anti-casino button Wednesday as he presided over Rosemont’s monthly village board meeting. He called the six-year battle for the state’s last remaining gaming license “pathetic.”
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