A Chicago man serving a six-year prison term for contempt of court was ordered freed on bond Tuesday after his lawyer made the stunning allegation that bribes bought the evidence that led to his conviction.
Bengaly Sylla, an African immigrant, was imprisoned last year after he was convicted of lying to Cook County Judge Daniel Lynch about the heirs of a woman killed in a 2007 traffic accident involving a Roadway Express truck.
At stake was $4.25 million that a jury awarded the woman’s estate in 2012 in a lawsuit against the company.
Last week, Sylla’s attorney filed an appeal, saying his conviction was the result of “fraud and bribery.”
Meanwhile, the Illinois Supreme Court is considering an explosive request to remove Lynch from the case for turning a “blind eye” to allegations that bribes paid for the evidence against Sylla.
The convoluted legal case centers on whether marriage documents obtained in the West African country of Mali were valid or fraudulent.
Sylla, 56, was the court-appointed administrator for the estate of his 28-year-old niece, Hawa Sissoko.
He told the court that her only beneficiaries were her parents and eight siblings in war-torn Mali — and she wasn’t married.
But in 2013, Lynch overturned a $4.25 million jury award to Sissoko’s family after the law firm representing Roadway Express obtained documents in Mali that a divorce decree was fraudulent and that other documents proved she was married and that her husband was living in New York.
Her husband ultimately settled with the trucking company for just $60,000.
Lynch launched an investigation into whether Sylla lied to the court. The judge appointed a private attorney, who presented evidence that Sylla lied about his niece’s rightful heirs. In May 2015, a jury found Sylla guilty of contempt of court.
On Friday, attorney Daniel Coyne, who recently took over Sylla’s criminal defense, filed an emergency motion to free him on bond.
The motion said Sylla’s conviction “was in fact a product of fraud and bribery in which cash payments were made in exchange for affidavits from Malian officials,” showing Sissoko was married.
Coyne also wrote that Sylla’s conviction should be overturned because he was never given a translator; he didn’t have an experienced criminal defense lawyer; and Lynch ignored a decision by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office not to prosecute Sylla.
On Tuesday, the state appeals court ordered Sylla released on a $50,000 bond pending the outcome of his appeal.
Sylla is expected to be released from prison as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Supreme Court is considering a motion to remove Lynch from the case.
The motion was filed earlier this month by the law firm Goldberg Weisman Cairo, which filed the lawsuit against Roadway on behalf of Sissoko’s estate in 2009.
In the motion, Lance Northcutt, an attorney representing Goldberg Weisman, told the Supreme Court that Lynch “turned a blind eye” to evidence of fraud and bribery in the case.
Northcutt also accused attorneys for Roadway of misleading the court.
In May 2013, C. Barry Montgomery, a lawyer representing Roadway, told Lynch in court that Stephanie Diakite of Washington state was an attorney and was part of Roadway’s legal defense team, according to a transcript of the hearing.
Roadway’s attorneys have asked the court to order Goldberg Weisman to reimburse them for $400,000 in “legal fees” paid to Diakite, according to Northcutt’s motion.
But Diakite was a “fraudster” who orchestrated a “series of illegal payoffs to government officials in Mali” that provided Roadway Express with the documents used to show Sissoko was married and Sylla lied that she wasn’t, Northcutt’s motion said.
What’s more, Diakite isn’t even a lawyer, according to Northcutt’s court filing.
Lynch has refused to “address the unraveling truth in the case,” Northcutt wrote.
On April 8, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke signed an order granting Northcutt’s request for a stay of the proceedings in Lynch’s court. The request to remove Lynch is pending.
On Tuesday, Montgomery filed a scathing response to Northcutt’s motion.
He said Northcutt produced no proof of the “spurious claim of illegal payoffs or that false evidence” was submitted by Montgomery or his law firm.
Montgomery also said “there is no factual or legal basis to remove Judge Lynch,” calling Northcutt’s accusations against the judge “false, misleading and defamatory.”
Montgomery said Diakite “was not hired and did not perform work as an attorney” but supervised the work of a Mali law firm that was investigating whether Sissoko was married or divorced.
“Information and statements were obtained from Mali court personnel and others which proved that the divorce decree was a fraud,” he wrote.
Diakite could not be reached. Northcutt, Coyne and Montgomery declined to comment.
