Ex-aide to former Illinois House Speaker Madigan gets 2.5 years for perjury
A federal judge in Chicago has sentenced a former chief of staff to longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to two and a half years in prison for lying under oath to a grand jury to protect his once-powerful boss
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago sentenced a former chief of staff to longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to two and a half years in prison Monday for lying under oath to a grand jury to protect his once-powerful boss.
U.S. District Judge John F. Kness imposed the sentence on Timothy Mapes, 69, of Springfield. A jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago last year convicted Mapes of making false declarations before a grand jury and attempted obstruction of justice.
“I don’t understand why. You were immunized by the grand jury, and all you had to do was go in and tell the truth,” Judge John Kness said. “You knew the testimony was false.… I can’t ignore that finding.”
Mapes is to report to prison in mid-June to begin his sentence, the judge said.
Kness said in court he felt a sense of loyalty had potentially motivated Mapes’ deception, but said that such a feeling was a mistake.
“Your loyalty was misguided, and now you will pay the price for that,” he said.
Prosecutors told jurors that Mapes lied repeatedly when he testified in 2021 to a grand jury investigating Madigan and others. They said he specifically lied when he said he couldn’t recall any relevant details about Madigan’s ties to Michael McClain, who was a Madigan confidant.
One witness, a legislator, told jurors that Madigan, Mapes and McClain formed a mighty triumvirate — with Madigan at its head — in the Illinois House for years, controlling which bills got through the legislative body.
Government evidence included wiretapped phone
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