Ex-State Sen. Martin Sandoval’s bribery charge

State Sen. Martin Sandoval resigned from the Illinois Senate in late November, two months after federal agents raided his Chicago home and government offices in Springfield and Cicero.

On Jan. 27, federals charged the the ex-official with bribery and filing a false tax return. The charges were filed in a two-page, lightly detailed document known as an information, which typically suggests a defendant intends to plead guilty.

The bribery count against Sandoval alleges that, between 2016 and September 2019, he “corruptly solicited, demanded, agreed to accept and accepted” money for “continued support for the operation of red-light cameras in the State of Illinois, including opposing legislation adverse to the interests of the red-light camera industry.”

Sandoval is also accused of filing a 2017 income tax return that said his total income was $125,905, when he “knew that the total income substantially exceeded that amount.”

Sandoval, 55, was a Water Reclamation District commissioner before he was first elected to the state Senate in 2003.

No court hearings have been scheduled yet in Sandoval’s case.