'King of Clout' William Cellini wants end to sentence

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has learned that Illinois' "King of Clout" is once again asking for special treatment from a federal judge. The story involves ex-con William Cellini, who was once a pal of disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich

Cellini made a career of getting his way. Based in Springfield and away from Chicago's spotlight, Cellini became known as the Kingmaker, raising money for and cutting deals with politicians from both parties. At age 76, the influence peddler was convicted of shaking down a Hollywood producer for donations to the Blagojevich campaign, a case that Cellini is still trying to dig out from.

In his heyday, power broker Cellini preferred to steer clear of the public spotlight, perhaps brokering his power from his Springfield mansion or lobbying behind the doors of political officeholders.

Then the hammer dropped on one of Cellini's deals, even before it fell on Gov. Blagojevich. Cellini had tried to shake down the Oscar-winning producer of "Million Dollar Baby", hoping to steer $1.5 million to the Blagojevich campaign.

He was convicted, and while he could have faced 30 years in prison, he received a year and a day. When he was released from prison, Cellini's attorneys filed a motion asking for special travel considerations while on a two-year supervised release.

On Friday, his attorneys filed a new motion requesting that his court supervision be terminated all together. According to these court documents, Cellini contends he has satisfied all of his sentencing requirements, including prison time and has paid all fines totally more than $75,000.

Essentially, at age 80, Cellini is arguing that he has behaved well, followed the rules and therefore deserves to have his punishment cut by one year.

In court papers, Cellini's attorneys contend that federal prosecutors are not opposed to terminating his court supervision - although that has not been confirmed by the U.S. Attorney.

Cellini has numerous health problems but one of his attorneys told the I-Team that has nothing to do with the request for an early out from his sentence.

"There is no family issue or health issue. This is routine," said defense attorney Thomas Kirsch who prepared the motion with co-counsel Dan Webb, the former U.S. Attorney from Chicago. Both are from the Chicago law firm of Winston and Strawn and represented Cellini at trial.

"After you serve a year of supervised release, if there are no issues-and of course there have not been in Cellini's case-the law permits you to file a motion to terminate supervised release to essentially relieve the burden on the probation department" Kirsch said.