CHICAGO _ Another convicted Chicago alderman is headed to prison.
Former Alderman Willie Cochran was sentenced to one year in prison Monday by U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso for using a ward charity fund like his personal piggy bank, including paying for gambling trips, fancy meals and accessories for his Mercedes-Benz.
After court, a defiant Cochran accused federal prosecutors of lying and exaggerating allegations of misconduct against him, saying that pleading guilty "was a mistake."
"There's no justice in this," Cochran told reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. "I'm not happy about it, my family is not happy about it. But you know, the fact of the matter is it's never gonna be right. Not under these circumstances. And everybody should be concerned because ... the Justice Department is allowing their prosecutors to tell lies and hide evidence."
It was a far different tone then the one Cochran struck in court not long before. In a 10-minute speech, the former alderman apologized quietly for his crimes, saying he felt "awkward and ashamed" to have let his family and constituents down.
"Quite a day, quite a day," said Cochran, shaking his head while seated at the defense table reading from a sheet of paper. "Quite a time period, going through all of this. I never thought I'd be making a statement like this under these circumstances."
In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso said Cochran's crimes added his name to "the long and pathetic tradition of public corruption in this city and state."
"Like others before him, Mr. Cochran gave into temptation," the judge said. "He gave into greed."
Federal prosecutors had sought up to 1 { years in prison for Cochran, who pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud, ending his tenure on the City Council.
By contrast, Cochran's lawyers asked the judge for probation with six months of home incarceration.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, U.S. Attorney John Lausch did not address Cochran's allegations about misconduct by Lausch's office, saying instead he was satisfied that the sentence will discourage the "'where's mine?' culture" in Chicago politics.
"A sentence if imprisonment, it does mean something," Lausch said. "It's common sense."
A former Chicago police officer first elected to office in 2007, Cochran is the city's 30th alderman since 1972 to be convicted of crimes related to official duties. Several other former aldermen, including Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak and Democratic stalwart William Beavers, were convicted of crimes after leaving the City Council.
His sentencing hearing came amid multiple ongoing corruption probes at City Hall, including the bombshell racketeering case filed earlier this month against Alderman Edward Burke, the council's longest-serving member who was accused of using his clout to steer business to his private law firm.
Ex-Alderman Danny Solis was revealed to have been wearing a wire for the FBI for two years as part of the Burke probe but has not been charged.
Last week, another federal investigation became public when FBI agents raided the Far South Side ward office of longtime Alderwoman Carrie Austin, a staunch Burke ally. The Chicago Tribune reported on Friday that authorities have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the construction and recent sale of a West Pullman home to Austin by a developer in her 34th Ward.
Lausch would not comment on any of those investigations when asked by reporters on Monday.
Cochran, 66, admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he stole more than $14,000 from the 20th Ward charity he created ostensibly to fund activities for needy children and provide assistance to others in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods he represented.
Instead, Cochran admitted using the fund to pay for personal expenses, including college tuition for his daughter, cash withdrawals from casino ATMs and the purchase of "items for his personal residence," according to the plea agreement.
In their sentencing filing, prosecutors said Cochran charged meals at fancy downtown restaurants, a fog lamp chrome bumper for his Mercedes as well as a "compact juice fountain" and herb scissors from Crate and Barrel to the charity's debit card.
He also purchased compact discs at Best Buy, including Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad Reloaded" and another titled "Call Me Irresponsible," prosecutors said.
Many of the items were found during a search of Cochran's home after he was charged.
Cochran used the money for himself despite taking home more than $137,000 a year after taxes between his aldermanic salary and his police pension, prosecutors said in a recent court filing.
"Whatever (Cochran's) motivation _ greed, his daughter's tuition, a gambling habit _ he misused and abused his position as an elected official for his personal gain," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather McShain and Christopher Stetler wrote.
In seeking a term of home confinement, Cochran's attorneys argued in their own filing that putting convicted aldermen behind bars has so far done little to curb corruption in the City Council ranks.
"Since sending the previous aldermen to jail has not done anything to curb Chicago's tidal wave of aldermanic corruption cases, there is no reason to think that sending Mr. Cochran to jail will," wrote Cochran's lawyer, Christopher Grohman.
Exhibit A, according to Grohman, is the still-unfolding corruption probe that has ensnared Burke and Solis.
In their response, prosecutors called the decidedly Chicago-style argument "irrational and worthy of derision."
