Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

Ald. Bernard L. Stone

Attorney fees for one of the co-defendants in the 50^th Ward vote fraud trial are being picked up by the Bernard L. Stone Campaign Committee.

Opening arguments and witness testimony began on Monday in the bench trial of Anish Eapen, the former ward superintendent and campaign worker Armando Ramos. Both men have been indicted on multiple felony charges that they allegedly tampered with absentee ballots of mostly immigrant voters in the 2007 municipal election and aldermanic runoff in the 50^th Ward.

In their opening statements on Monday, attorneys for Eapen and Ramos contended that both men were poorly trained in election law and were acting on instructions from Ald. Berny Stone (50^th Ward) and Alan Crown, secretary of Stone’s Democratic Club of the 50^thWard and assistant vice mayor, when they went to the homes of voters and picked up uncertified absentee ballots to mail in violation of state election laws.

Stonefaced three challengers and in the 2007 aldermanic race and narrowly won back his seat on the Chicago City Council in a runoff against Naisy Dolar. He has not been charged with any wrong doing.

Campaign finance disclosure statements filed by the Bernard L. Stone Campaign Committee with the Illinois State Board of Elections list two payments of $5,000 under expenditures paid to Rohit Sahgal, the Oak Brook, IL-based attorney for Armando Ramos, on Sept. 16 and Dec. 4, 2008. The expenses, totaling $10,000, are noted as “attorney fees, Committee” in care of “6199 N. Lincoln Ave.,” the address of Stone’s ward service office.

Sahgal described Ramos in his opening statements on Monday as a pawn in a “vicious runoff election” who was did what he was assigned to do by Stone and Crown, “no questions asked.”

Sahgal said he was not representing Stone nor his campaign committee. Asked if the attorney fees paid out of Stone’s campaign funds for the reporting period between July 1 and Dec, 31, 2008 were for Ramos’s legal fees, Sahgal said, “That’s my understanding.  If that’s what’s on there, that’s what’s on there.”

Illinois campaign finance laws define “expenditures” as “a payment, distribution, purchase, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, in connection with the nomination for election, or election, of any person to public office, in connection with the election of any person as ward or township committeeman in counties of 3,000,000 or more population, or in connection with any question of public policy.”

Altering or falsifying information with the intent to misrepresent contributions received or expenditures made by a candidate or political committee shall be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.

Rupert Borgsmiller, director of campaign disclosure for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said that Illinois campaign finance laws are “silent” as far as using campaign funds to pay attorney fees. In other words, legal fees for the purpose of candidates contesting elections or defending petition challenges are permissible under the law, and don’t appear under what campaign funds cannot be used for, such as a personal home mortgage or Direct TV bill.

“The law does not say that it is not permissible to spend money on legal fees but if the information as reported is not proper, it’s totally another story,” Borgsmiller said. “It comes down to justification of the committee itself as an expense to public office or candidacy.”

Former Governor Rod Blagojevich is spending what is left in his campagin fund under a judge’s supervision to pay for his defense on federal corruption charges.

Borgsmiller said the Board of Elections regularly contacts campaign committees it receives in response to complaints about about possible misuses of campaign funds or false or inaccurate information on disclosure statements. A hearing officer is assigned who conducts a preliminary investigation, and, if warranted a public hearing.

“If there is significant information there we can file a complaint. You follow it through in that manner and see where it leads you,” Borgsmiller  said.

Stone’s office said the alderman was unavailable for comment and would remain so.