Mayor Daley bent over backward Tuesday to praise his former patronage chief and the three men convicted with Robert Sorich of rigging city hiring. But Daley refused to pass judgment on Sorich’s
46-month sentence.
“I know all those young men personally — and their families — and they’re very fine young men. . . . You know that. You cover City Hall. Talk to anyone in City Hall and they’ll tell you that,” Daley said, in his first public comment on the sentence.
Daley clammed up when asked if he believes 46 months in prison is too long a punishment for Sorich, a lifelong resident of the mayor’s native Bridgeport.
CONSISTENT DEFENDER
Sorich’s father was former Mayor Richard J. Daley’s photographer.
The former patronage chief spent years as personal driver and 11th Ward secretary for Democratic Ward Committeeman John Daley, the mayor’s brother. Patrick Slattery, a Sorich co-defendant, is married to the current Mayor Daley’s personal secretary.
“No comment. No comment,” the mayor said, when asked about Sorch’s sentence.
Sorich, Slattery and two other former high-ranking city officials were convicted in July of rigging city hiring and promotions to benefit pro-Daley political workers.
Last week, Sorich, 43, was sentenced to 46 months in prison by a federal judge who branded the hiring fraud “corruption with a capital C.”
Sorich told a courtroom packed with family, friends and neighbors that he “tried to do my best and . . . tried to be fair.” He neither cooperated nor apologized.
Daley’s decision to defend Sorich and his cohorts — even after they have been convicted and sentenced — is consistent. He’s been defending them ever since the Hired Truck investigation branched out into city hiring.
“I feel for the men named and their families at this difficult time. I know them. I know their families to be good people who are outstanding in the community. The allegations against them do not fit what I know about them,” the mayor told reporters in July 2005, after the four were first accused of rigging hiring.
The mayor’s response was the same three months ago, when he defended a weekend fund-raiser at a Bridgeport church to help defray Sorich’s legal bills. Some privately called the $100-a-head event “hush money.” Daley, whose brother attended the fund-raiser, was not among them.
“They’re all friends. . . . They can have a party for him. . . . You help your friends. . . . There’s nothing wrong with that,” Daley said.
The mayor did not waver when asked whether the Sorich fund-raiser had sent a “mixed message” to government employees — and offered “tacit approval that those in power” think Sorich did nothing wrong.
“They’re still friends of his. Do you think when someone makes one mistake that you would kick ’em all the way down the street? I doubt it,” he said.
