Mayor of Chicago suburb indicted on federal perjury, obstruction charges
RIVERDALE, Ill. (CBS) -- The mayor of south suburban Riverdale was indicted Thursday on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
Lawrence Jackson, 49, has been mayor of Riverdale for 10 years. He has been under investigation on allegations of receiving secret payments from a garbage and recycling company.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported, Jackson was still the mayor of Riverdale as of Thursday. But there was no sign of him at his office.
The federal charges he now faces carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say Jackson lied under oath when testifying during a deposition for a civil lawsuit filed in 2018 by waste management company Tri-State Disposal Inc.
They claimed Jackson refused to renew their contract so he could give special treatment to a different company, whose owner is accused of giving Jackson's own trucking company kickbacks.
Federal prosecutors detail the 2021 deposition, where they say Jackson lied about his dealing with that firm - denying he knew the owners when investigators had evidence of prior history and text messages, and denying knowledge of business dealings.
He testified, "I don't handle the day-to-day operations of the business," according to the indictment.
Unable to connect with Jackson for a comment on the indictment, we went to Village Hall, and his home. There was no sign of the mayor in any of those places.
We were told he is still leading Riverdale, and there was no comment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office said an arraignment date for Jackson still hasn't been set. We will check back with them on that.
We also still have not heard back from the companies involved.
