Former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke sentenced Monday – NBC Chicago

Editor’s note: The video in the player above is from a previous report.

Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke will be sentenced Monday for illegally wielding his considerable influence over developers and threatening one of Chicago’s cultural icons for his own benefit.

Burke’s sentencing will come just three days after a federal judge rejected a final attempt to delay the hearing until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a separate corruption case, according to the Chicago Tribune. Defense attorneys have asked for a delay until the court makes a decision in the corruption case of former Portage, Indiana, Mayor James Snyder.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall said she agreed with prosecutors that the high court’s decision in Snyder’s case “will have little or no impact” on the sentence imposed. in Burke, the Tribune reported.

Federal prosecutors, in a 51-page court filing, sought a 10-year prison sentence, which would amount to one of the harshest public corruption sentences handed down by the city’s federal court in recent years. decade. Burke is 80 years old.

“He abused and exploited his position by pursuing his own personal and financial interests for years,” prosecutors wrote in the memo. “Time and again, Burke used his significant political power to solicit and receive bribes from entities with business before the City of Chicago – all in order to obtain legal business for his private law firm . »

Meanwhile, Burke’s lawyers are asking the judge to give him no prison time, which they say would be “a powerful and just expression of mercy for an 80-year-old man in the twilight of his life who has given so much of himself for so many years.

Days earlier, Burke was back in court, seeking either a new trial or having his conviction overturned.

A federal jury convicted Burke in December of racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion after prosecutors argued Burke used his political influence to pressure people and businesses for personal gain.

Monday’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.