No Prison Time For Lesser-Known Blagojevich Associate
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A lesser-known associate of deposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich will not be getting prison time for his involvement in a kickback scheme.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bob Conway reports, real estate consultant John Glennon was indicted in 2005 – three years before Rod Blagojevich ever faced criminal trouble and a year before he was reelected. Glennon was charged with covering up kickbacks involving state boards controlled by Blagojevich insiders.
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Glennon pleaded guilty in 2007 to failing to report a felony, which carries a maximum three-year sentence.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Grady said he had no intention of sentencing Glennon to prison time, saying the businessman's time would be better spent doing community service.
Grady said he will sentence Glennon to probation.
Judge Grady said Glennon's behavior since has been exemplary, and that society would be better served if he employed his skills as a businessman to teach entrepreneurs from poorer parts of Chicago how to secure financing.
"This is an unusual case in the sense that the defendant has both the character and ability to render significant community service," Grady said. "Usually, a defendant in federal court is not the type of person we want to turn loose on the community."
Glennon admitted in his plea agreement that he had known a contractor was inflating the cost of a construction project but said nothing. He also admitted he got $700,000 from the contractor as part of the project.
Once an influential Republican, Glennon is one of several individuals associated with Blagojevich's administration who were slated to be sentenced after the impeached governor, a Democrat, began serving a 14-year corruption sentence last week.
Next week, Blagojevich's last chief of staff, John Harris, is due to be sentenced. Lon Monk, another former chief of staff and old Blagojevich college pal, was also supposed to be sentenced next week. But his hearing was pushed into April.
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