Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Illinois Downie Boss Goes to Prison; Nancy Pelosi Calls It "That Culture of Corruption"
Charlie Powell, Jr., a leading Downie is headed for the hoosgow for trying to buy votes in the 2004 election.
Hmmm...we wonder who he was trying to help?
Ex-Democratic Boss in Ill. Gets Prison
How long before Nancy Pelosi (D-Nutjob) blames this on a "right-wing smear"?
Charlie Powell, Jr., a leading Downie is headed for the hoosgow for trying to buy votes in the 2004 election.
Hmmm...we wonder who he was trying to help?
Ex-Democratic Boss in Ill. Gets Prison
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) -- When poor students from this impoverished city got into college, Charlie Powell Jr. chipped in so they could attend.
He got a trophy case for a junior high school. He ran a clean, loving boarding home for people who were homeless or mentally ill, keeping them safe and off the streets.
Along the way, he rose to great political power, in recent years as a precinct committeeman and head of the local Democratic Party. It's that position that proved to be his undoing.
In a federal courtroom Tuesday, despite testimony reciting his good works, Powell was ordered to spend a year and nine months in prison for scheming to buy votes in the November 2004 election.
Opting to let his attorney and four character witnesses speak for him, Powell, 62, didn't get the probation he was seeking. But he still caught a break from U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy, who turned back a federal prosecutor's request that Powell get something close to nearly three years behind bars.
"He's done a very good job for himself and the people he serves," Murphy noted. "The simple truth is that politics in the state of Illinois is a real contact sport and obviously a very dangerous occupation to undertake."
Powell is appealing, and the judge allowed him to remain free until his sentence starts. Powell lost his re-election bid to the City Council in April after his arrest.
Powell became the last person sentenced among the five convicted of conspiracy to commit vote fraud. Three co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms - the longest was four and a half years - while the fourth defendant got probation.
How long before Nancy Pelosi (D-Nutjob) blames this on a "right-wing smear"?
