The Chicago Tribune reports:
Chicago City Clerk James Laski and four others were indicted today on corruption charges connected to the city's Hired Truck Program.
A federal grand jury returned the eight-count indictment against Laski and his former campaign coordinator, Sam Gammicchia, both of whom were initially charged in criminal complaints unsealed two weeks ago.
Also charged today were John Briatta, 46, the former chief equipment dispatcher for the Department of Water Management; Randy Aderman, 50, former water distribution division projects administrator, and Michael Jones, 48, an employee of Laski's office, according to a news release from U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's office.
Briatta is a brother-in-law of Cook County Commissioner John Daley, brother of Richard Daley, and is a personal acquaintance of the mayor.
To what extent is Chicago's Water Department a "racketeering enterprise"? Here's the
Chicago Sun-Times report on the indictments:
Briatta, 46, lives a few blocks away from his brother-in-law, John Daley, in the Bridgeport neighborhood. Briatta, a resident of the 11th Ward, is politically active and a member of the mayor’s controversial Hispanic Democratic Organization.
Briatta has been a city employee for decades, landing the job soon after his sister, Mary Lou, married John Daley in 1975. The wedding sparked controversy because Mayor Richard J. Daley’s son was marrying the daughter of Louis Briatta, described in press accounts at the time as a Loop gambling boss for the mob.
That's the Chicago Way.
