Ed Burke’s lawyers swamp judge with glowing letters of support ahead of sentencing: ‘I know who Ed really is'

As sentencing nears for Chicago’s 80-year-old, longest-serving City Council member, lawyers for ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke braced a judge this week “for a biblical flood of stories and letters from people of all walks of life who have been touched by his kindness and generosity.”

And then they delivered, offering 200 letters — totaling almost 350 pages — from faith leaders, current and former government officials, members of the legal and law enforcement communities, and members of Burke’s own family hoping for mercy.

“I am unable to grasp the thought of us not being together when God calls us home,” wrote Burke’s wife, retired Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke.

“As retirees, we get through these days by helping each other with all those daily tasks that are challenging at 80 years old. I am devastated by the prospect that I will not be with Ed at the end of our lives,” she wrote. “Please find compassion through the Holy Spirit in your decision.”

It amounts to Ed Burke’s last, best hope ahead of sentencing June 24 for his racketeering conviction in December. It’s also a traditional tactic among convicted public officials facing sentencing in Chicago, including a key Burke ally, that has seen mixed results over the years.

A federal jury found Ed Burke guilty of 13 counts that also included bribery and attempted extortion. The case against him involved schemes revolving around the Field Museum, the Old Post Office straddling the Eisenhower Expressway, a Burger King in Burke’s 14th Ward, and a Binny’s Beverage Depot on the Northwest Side.

Prosecutors want U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall to give the former City Council dean 10 years in prison. Ed Burke’s lawyers asked Kendall to spare him any time in prison, pitching alternatives such as home confinement instead.

Though they addressed their client’s crimes in a 51-page memo to Kendall filed late Monday, defense attorneys mostly leaned on letters of support that document Ed Burke’s “private acts of financial generosity, support during medical crises and grief,” as well as other good acts.

The letters illustrate the life of a man who spent decades in power. They came from current and former police officers and captains, firefighters, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, a former inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, the former president of Burke alma mater DePaul University, former Illinois first lady Jayne Carr Thompson, the prominent Rev. Michael Pfleger, current Chicago Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) and numerous former Council members.

Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told Kendall that as a lifelong law enforcement officer he felt “conflicted” and that “it is hard to reconcile the Ed Burke that I know with the allegations in this case.”

“[B]ut I am sure that I know who Ed really is, beyond the public persona,” McCarthy wrote. “I cannot fathom myself writing this letter for anyone other than Ed Burke.”

Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times

Perhaps the most poignant letter came from Anne Burke, who told the judge that her husband has “been my best friend for sixty years” and shared the couple’s enchanting love story.

“As we learned about each other, we realized we were in love. I was deeply moved by how he cared for people around him,” she wrote. “My husband would never have called himself a feminist, but that’s what he was. He believed in me and constantly encouraged me to believe I could become and do more.”

Webb, once Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, said he’d been friends with the Burkes for 40 years. He told the judge that, “on no occasion did I ever receive any information from any source that disparaged his outstanding reputation as an honorable and dedicated member of the Chicago City Council.”

Former Ald. Terry Gabinski (32nd) added that Ed Burke “has spent a lifetime of doing the right thing for his family and friends.” Ed Burke threatened the Field Museum because it didn’t respond when he recommended Gabinski’s daughter for an internship.

Pfleger wrote that Burke “has always been straightforward with me and clear about his love for the city.”

Not every letter written to the judge about the former alderperson has been friendly. Former city plumber Patrick McDonough told the judge in a recent letter that “greed characterizes Mr. Burke’s mind and motivation when he was an alderman” and that his crimes “were not victimless.”

It remains to be seen whether any of this moves Kendall when it comes time for her to hand down her sentence. The same tactic nearly succeeded for one of Ed Burke’s key allies in the notorious “Council Wars” of the 1980s. A judge initially handed probation to former Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th) in 2009, during his first federal prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur cited an “extraordinary volume and character” described in letters that, based on Vrdolyak’s reputation, he “would never have dreamed existed.”

But prosecutors appealed. The sentence was tossed, and another judge gave Vrdolyak 10 months in prison in that case.

Disagreeing sharply with defense lawyers, prosecutors in Ed Burke’s case have called on Kendall to send “a simple, undiluted, and unequivocal warning loud and clear: You will pay dearly — regardless of your age — if you choose the dark path of corruption that Burke decided to walk for many years.”