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Former Navy Pier, McCormick Place boss takes stand in ex-Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan trial

Wednesday, November 20, 2024 12:50AM

Former 'McPier' boss takes stand in 5th week of Madigan trial

Former Navy Pier and McCormick Place boss Juan Ochoa took the stand Tuesday in former Illinois Speaker Mike Madigan's corruption trial.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The corruption trial against Michael Madigan is now in its fifth week at the Dirksen Federal Building.

On Tuesday, the politically connected former boss of "McPier," Juan Ochoa, took the stand.

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The conversation quickly turned to his appointment to the ComEd Board of Directors five years ago.

According to the indictment against Madigan, Ochoa's garnering of the lucrative, mostly ceremonial, position was just one more instance of the utility company attempting to bribe the then-Illinois House speaker.

In a repeat performance of his testimony during last year's ComEd Four trial, Ochoa took the stand as a government witness, testifying to his 2019 appointment to a $78,000-a-year position on ComEd's Board of Directors.

Ochoa is a politically connected businessman and a close friend of former Congressman Luis Gutierrez. He once served as the head of McPier: the corporation that owns and runs both Navy Pier and McCormick Place.

Mike Madigan trial live updates: Fmr. top leader at ComEd takes stand in former IL speaker trial

"I asked him if he would consider setting up a meeting with Speaker Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to see if they would consider recommending me for the board," Ochoa said to Assistant U.S. State's Attorney Diane Macarthur.

He said that throughout the more than yearlong wait for ComEd to make their decision, Madigan personally called him twice with updates.

"He informed me that I would likely be seated" Ochoa said.

As the government gets ready to wrap up the ComEd-related portion of their corruption case against Madigan and his co-defendant, Mike McClain, prosecutors have spent the last week building upon the mountain of recorded phone calls and emails attempting to show a seemingly never-ending stream of benefits given by the utility company to Madigan's political allies.

Among those calls was an unusually candid exchange between McClain and former ComEd executive John Hooker.

"We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us. That's, it's that simple," McClain said. "So, if you want to make a federal court suit over it, OK. But that's how simple it is."

FBI agents testified on various search warrants executed in the Madigan case Monday.

Madigan and McClain face bribery and racketeering charges.