15th Chicago Building inspector convicted: Building inspector guilty of taking thousands of dollars in bribes to overlook code violations

The Chicago Tribune reports:

A federal jury convicted a veteran Chicago building inspector on Thursday of taking thousands of dollars in bribes to overlook code violations.

Jose Hernandez, 47, is the 15th city inspector convicted of pocketing payoffs in the Operation Crooked Code probe of bribery. Four other people in the case have also been found guilty, and eight individuals still face trial, said Jon Davey of the city inspector general's office, which teamed up with federal authorities in the investigation.

"For (Hernandez), an honest day's pay was simply not enough," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Grimes said in closing arguments before the jury began its deliberations Wednesday. "(He) looked the other way … and put his personal greed ahead of the building code he was supposed to enforce."

Hernandez, a building inspector since 1988, was convicted of four counts of bribery for pocketing a $1,000 bribe from each of two contractors to sign off on bogus inspections and threatening to issue violations against two others unless they paid him $2,000 each.

For more on the subject of Chicago's government being a racketeering enterprise.