Ald. Cochran’s lawyer dubs charges against him ‘penny ante’

Better legal advice and a team of accountants could have spared Willie Cochran the spectacle of being indicted, his lawyer said Friday, after the South Side alderman entered a not guilty plea to charges he solicited bribes and pilfered donations intended for children and seniors in his ward.

Cochran was silent as he entered the Dirksen Federal Court House for his arraignment, officially becoming the third alderman from the poverty-stricken 20^th Ward to face federal charges since 1987.

Asked why residents of the 20^th Ward–comprised of parts of Back of the Yards, New City, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, Washington Park, and Woodlawn— have seen so many of its council representatives face corruption charges, Tom Durkin said that the ward’s economic depression carries over to its elected representatives, leaving less cash for them to hire help to manage their personal and campaign funds.

“Every alderman in this city is fair game to the feds. I don’t know why anybody would want to be an alderman in this town. It’s a thankless task and all you get is criticism,” Durkin said.

“The one thing that you don’t get if you’re the alderman of the 20^th Ward is a lot of money…You want to look at campaign contributions…the alderman in Woodlawn doesn’t exactly get as much as the alderman in Streeterville.”

Lack of money, Durkin said, was why Cochran didn’t hire lawyers and accountants to handle his various campaign, aldermanic and personal accounts, and why he never incorporated a non-profit to handle donations to his “20^th Ward Activities Fund,” which federal prosecutors say Cochran looted for personal expenses.

The $177,000 in the 20^th Ward Activities fund was less than aldermen in wealthy wards might raise at a single fundraiser, Durkin said.

“When you don’t have money, you don’t get to hire fancy, sophisticated downtown lawyers, you don’t get to to hire CPAs, you may not be able to do the paper work you may not be able to get as technical as the (other) people,” said Durkin, who is himself one of the most prominent defense lawyers in the city— though one Cochran hired only a few weeks ago.

“The whole issue here is the relationship between money in politics.”

Durkin conceded that Cochran took money from the Activities Fund account, but noted that the alderman never incorporated as a non-profit to receive donations, which would allow donors to get a tax write-off for the gift, as well as put strict rules on how the money could be handled. Cochran also paid back money to the fund, and used the fund to pay for events for children and seniors in his ward. Prosecutors allege Cochran spent $5,000 from the fund on college tuition for his daughter, and withdrew a total of $25,000 from ATM machines near his favorite casinos.

“My understanding is that the things it set out to do, it did. It brought meals to people, it brought assistance to people,” Durkin said. “There’s no question the alderman used some of the money. There’s also no question that he put some of the money back in.

“Maybe I’d characterize it as stupid or careless, or maybe if he could have afforded to go to Winston & Strawn or Jenner & Block” — two of the city’s largest law firms— “they would have said ‘No set (the account) up as a 501©3 and get a board of directors and insulate yourself.’ ”

Cochran made nearly $200,000 a year from his council salary and his pension as a retired police officer. He also paid himself $115,000 over the last three years from his campaign accounts— payouts that were revealed when the alderman in recent months filed a flurry of revised campaign finance statements.

Such payouts are legal, if they are recorded as income with the IRS, and none of the charges against Cochran are based on how he handled funds from his campaign accounts. Durkin said Friday that any money Cochran took from the Activities Account also was reported to the IRS.

“If he was a thief, I don’t think it would have been reported on his income tax. And there would have been a lot easier ways for him to to steal it,” Durkin said. “There’s no bones about the fact that he made withdrawals. The issue is intent… it’s obvious to me that he thought it was OK. Whether it was the right choice, I’m sure some fancy lawyers would tell you.”

As far as the bribery counts, Durkin noted that recent court decision have made public corruption cases more difficult for prosecutors to prove. Prosecutors allege Cochran took a $1,500 bribe from a lawyer who was seeking a support letter for a redevelopment project, and $3,000 from a liquor store owner who needed the alderman’s help to preserve a liquor license.

But Durkin said in a political system awash in cash from lobbyists and campaign donors, it’s not a crime for a politician to take money, unless prosecutors can show that the payout influenced them to act a certain way.

Durkin, carrying a printout of a quote about campaign contributions attributed to Donald Trump and a heavily highlighted copy of a day-old newspaper article about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s emails, said that Cochran’s conduct was just part of modern politics, noting that Emanuel discussed a zoning change with a Gold Coast constituent.

Reading a Trump quote, in which the then-businessman talked about giving contributions to politicians of all stripes, so elected officials would “kiss my ass,” Durkin noted that there was no indictment against the president-elect.

“Last I heard, Trump wasn’t getting accused of bribery, and any politician he gave money to wasn’t’ getting accused of extortion,” Durkin said.

Durkin said Cochran intended to stand trial, but seemed to concede that the “poor” alderman deprived of first-rate accountants wasn’t likely to win sympathy from a jury of his peers.

“This more of a legal argument. We may ask for a bench trial,” Durkin said.

Asked if “common sense,” and not sophisticated legal advice, was all Cochran needed to know to avoid taking money he shouldn’t have, Durkin responded with a quip.

“Common sense to me, would say don’t run for alderman of the 20th Ward,” he said.