Co-defendant defense team expected to close Tuesday
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan's defense team wrapped up their final presentation to the jury on Monday.
Madigan's team started Friday afternoon, following a 12-hour closing argument delivered by the government over two and a half days.
His attorney asked the jury to see Madigan not as a mythical figure, a Sphinx, as he was called by some, but as a man and fellow citizen.
Madigan's defense attorney Dan Collins continued his final presentation to the jury Monday by tearing into former alderman-turned-government-mole Danny Solis.
"He's not simply a walking microphone," said Collins, referring to the prosecution's description of Solis last week, when they told the jury to set aside the long list of crimes committed by the former Zoning Committee chair.
Prosecutors asked the jury to assess his contribution as a witness solely on the basis of the mountain of undercover recordings he provided during his two-and-a-half-year cooperation.
"This is all a stage production by the government and Danny Solis," said Collins, who has repeatedly said prosecutors have no evidence to prove the former House speaker ever solicited or received bribes from Solis or anyone else.
The tear down was just one of three Monday.
Madigan's defense attorney applied the same treatment to former ComEd Executive Fidel Marquez, who, like Solis, turned government mole to avoid prosecution for his role in what the government has described as a years-long effort by the utility company to bribe the then-speaker in exchange for his help in Springfield.
Marquez recorded dozens of his phone calls and meetings with other ComEd executives, as well as with Madigan's co-defendant, Mike McClain.
Collins said McClain was just an old lobbyist exaggerating his importance to others, using Madigan's name without the speaker's knowledge to push his own agenda.
Earlier Friday, however, in wrapping up the government's closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur told the jury, "We have proven to you beyond a reasonable doubt each of the counts alleged in the indictment. Madigan and McClain are guilty of each count in which they are charged."
MacArthur also made the point that in order to find Madigan, and his co-defendant McClain, guilty of racketeering, which is the 23-count indictment's umbrella charge, the focus is not on whether all the elements of the crime were committed.
Instead, it's on the agreement between the parties to participate in a criminal enterprise that affects interstate commerce by committing at least two criminal acts within a specified timeframe.
On Friday, the judge told the jury not to expect to start their deliberations before Tuesday.
It was 14 weeks ago when the jury was first seated.
There's still one more closing argument to go: that of Madigan's co-defendant, McClain - along with the government's rebuttal before that happens.
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