The lies told to a federal grand jury by a longtime Cook County employee “affected the government’s ability to file charges against Dorothy Brown,” according to a court document made public Wednesday.
Further, it said federal officials concluded the lies told by Beena Patel and Sivasubramani Rajaram “prevented the FBI from moving forward with their investigation of Dorothy Brown,” the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Patel and Rajaram both once worked in Brown’s office.
The claims, which echo earlier comments, appear in an 18-page memo filed by Patel’s defense attorney, Donald Angelini Jr. In it, he asked a judge to sentence Patel to probation after her perjury conviction earlier this year. He also said Patel’s pension has been suspended. Her final $7,287 monthly benefit was paid Nov. 1, Angelini wrote.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis let Angelini file the memo under seal earlier this month. The judge reversed course only after the Chicago Tribune wrote a letter protesting her decision. Ellis told Angelini this week to file a public version of the memo with only some medical information redacted.
The judge also rescheduled Patel’s sentencing hearing for Dec. 12. Federal prosecutors want Ellis to send Patel to prison for more than two years. In their own memo, prosecutors wrote that Patel’s lies “directly impacted the government’s ability to charge those most culpable in the illegal activity.”
Angelini’s memo quoted a report written by court personnel that said Patel’s lies “affected the government’s ability to file charges against Dorothy Brown.” Angelini wrote that Patel fears her sentencing hearing “could turn into a comment on public corruption.”
Vadim Glozman, Brown’s lawyer, said Wednesday he “can’t comment on what the government thinks,” including whether Patel’s crime affected prosecutors’ ability to file charges. He called the case against Patel a “completely separate matter. It has nothing to do with Ms. Brown.”
It’s been four years since the FBI seized a cell phone from Brown. She has long denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. But prosecutors made clear during Patel’s trial that Brown had been the focus of a federal investigation.
By mid-2015, Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather McShain said at trial the FBI and a grand jury were “well over a year into an investigation of Dorothy Brown” over allegations that Brown had been selling jobs, promotions and pay raises inside her office.
