People v. Link

• Decision Date: 09 February 1937
• Docket Number: No. 23433.,23433.
• Citation: 6 N.E.2d 201,365 Ill. 266
• Parties: PEOPLE v. LINK et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

365 Ill. 266

6 N.E.2d 201

PEOPLE

v.LINK et al.

No. 23433.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 14, 1936.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Feb. 9, 1937.

Error to Third Branch Appellate Court, First District, on Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Harry M. Fisher, John Prystalski, and James J. Kelly, Judges.

Frank J. Link and others were indicted for conspiracy, and defendants Frank J. Link, John T. Miller, Timothy J. Crowe, and Martin Edelstein were convicted of conspiracy. Convictions of defendants Link and Miller were affirmed in the Appellate Court (282 Ill.App. 520), and they bring error.

Affirmed.John L. McInerney, of Chicago (Bernhardt Frank, of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

Otto Kerner, Atty. Gen., Thomas J. Courtney, State's Atty., of Chicago, and A. B. Dennis, of Danville (Edward E. Wilson and Henry E. Seyfarth, both of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

WILSON, Justice.

Frank J. Link, John T. Miller, Timothy J. Crowe, August W. Miller, Timothy L. Connolly, James M. Whalen, John J. Touhy, John K. Lawler, and Martin Edelstein were jointly indicted in the criminal court of Cook county for conspiracy. Of these, Crowe was president of the board of trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago in 1927 and 1928, Link, August W. Miller, Whalen, Touhy, and Lawler were trustees, John T. Miller was superintendent of the department of permanent plants and structures, Edelstein was head of the real estate department, and Connolly was the purchasing agent. Connolly was not apprehended until the trial was in progress, and the charge against him was subsequently nolle prossed. The other defendants pleaded not guilty and waived a trial by jury. Lawler died during the trial. August W. Miller, Whalen, and Touhy were acquitted, and Link, John T. Miller, Crowe, and Edelstein were found guilty as charged. The court sentenced Link and Crowe to from one to five year's imprisonment in the penitentiary, and fined John T. Miller and Edelstein each $2,000 and sentenced them to confinement in the house of correction for six and three months, respectively. Thereafter the court sustained a motion to vacate the sentence against Edelstein and the indictment was nolle prossed as to him. Upon a writ of error the Appellate Court for the First District affirmed the judgment against Link and John T. Miller. Crowe died during the pendency of the writ, and it was, in consequence, abated as to him. The defendants Link and John T. Miller have prosecuted a writ of error from this court, and the record is submitted for a further review.

Prior to the commencement of the trial, all counts of the indictment except the first, third, and seventh were quashed. The first charges the nine persons previously named with conspiracy to wrongfully obtain, by false pretenses, $5,000,000 in money from the Sanitary District of Chicago. The third count charges the defendants with conspiracy to unlawfully divert $3,000,000 in money and property from the Sanitary District of Chicago to certain persons by inducing the sanitary district to pay to such persons large sums of money under the false pretenses that they were performing, and had performed, work, services, and labor for the district and that it was indebted to them, when, in fact, they were not performing and had not performed any services, work, and labor for the district and it was not indebted to them. By the seventh count the charge is made that the defendants conspired together and with George L. Chamberlain, and with divers other persons whose names were unknown, to award certain contracts at an extortionate cost to the Sanitary District of Chicago, namely, for work and labor to be done in the construction and equipment, among others, of the West Side sewage treatment works, the North Side sewage treatment works, a cinder path and bridle path, and the ornamental electric street lighting system of McCormick boulevard, and thereby to defraud the district of its funds.

The record is voluminous, consisting of approximately 7,000 pages and the abstract of more than 1,300 pages. More than 700 witnesses testified for the prosecution. None of the defendants testified in their own behalf and only one witness was called by them. The actions of the defendants upon which the charge of conspiracy rests fall into three major classifications: (1) Pay-roll padding; (2) the unauthorized construction of a cinder or bridle path at an exorbitant cost to the Sanitary District of Chicago; and (3) not only excessive but also duplicate, and in some instances multiple, payments for services and materials furnished the district by various companies. The evidence with respect to these matters will be summarized.

During the period in controversy Crowe was president of the Sanitary District of Chicago and Link was one of the trustees. On December 2, 1926, the board of trustees adopted a rule which provided that ‘the committee on employment shall appoint all employees of the district, and the chairman of said committee shall certify in writing to the head of the proper department and to the clerk the names of all such employees, stating the positions to be filled and the compensation to be paid to such employees. Thereupon it shall be the duty of such head of department and the clerk of the district to include the name of such employee upon the pay-roll of the district. * * * The head of any department, in case of emergency, may temporarily employ such agents and employees as may be required by the work of the district and report his action in the premises at once to the committee on employment.’ Crowe was chairman of the committee on employment during 1927 and 1928 and the other trustees were members. The board, in one meeting in 1927 and in another in 1928, approved the employment of all persons placed on the pay rolls in those two years. The sanitary district had several departments, among others, law, permanent plants and structures, purchasing, engineering, and Illinois valley. The defendant John T. Miller was the head of the department of permanent plants and structures. This department, in turn, had several divisions, one of which was the water-meter survey division. Two hundred ninety-one witnesses testified that although their names were on the water survey pay roll, they performed no services whatever for the sanitary district. They received in the aggregate many thousands of dollars in ‘pay.’ The committee on employmentapproved the appointment of these persons and placed them on the pay roll upon receiving an authorization from Miller as to each individual. Among them was J. A. Egelston, sponsored by Link, who testified that he received $200 per month from April 1 to November 15, 1928. This witness admitted not only that he performed no services for the district, but also that he never reported for service. Charles Young, a musician, was on the water survey pay roll during October and November, 1928. He testified that he was engaged to sing at political meetings, and that he learned that he was on the pay roll of the sanitary district only when he was compensated in the form of checks issued by the district.

One hundred sixty-two other persons testified that they were on the water survey pay roll and performed services wholly incommensurate with their remuneration. Large salaries were paid to these witnesses for services such as copying names off poll and registration lists, addressing envelopes, and interviewing certain householders to ascertain whether they had water meters in their houses. One to four hours a day was devoted to these purposes. During election periods, however, the witnesses spent from two to four weeks of intensive effort in purely political activities in their local neighborhoods. Illustrative is the case of a minister of the African Methodist-Episcopal Church. He stated that he was on the pay roll of the sanitary district from January to November, 1928, at a salary of $200 per month. For services described as follows he received $2,000: ‘Was assigned to survey the water from Thirty-ninth street and the lake front to Randolph. I used to go up and down and report, walking along the lake front. Had an instrument to survey it with. I would say whether the water was raised or fell, whether the water was higher, and went down, and report. I made those reports to the clerk, verbal reports. I would report that the lake level mark was about six to eight inches difference, as the case appeared, day after day. That was the only work I ever did for the district-the only work that I was ever asked to do. * * * The ex-State's attorney Crowe gave me a letter to Timothy Crowe.’ Fred Spoffard was on the water survey pay roll from January 1 to June 30, 1928, and again from October 1 to November 30. He testified that he performed a little clerical work for two or three days at the office of the district; that he was then sent to the county building to copy some names on long sheets of paper, and that he received $1406.25 in compensation. Referring particularly to his employment from January 1 to June 30 Spoffard said: ‘I think I worked the first three days, and did no work after that.’ The evidence also shows that eighty-one persons admitted they were employees of the law department who rendered no service to the district, and that twenty-nine others testified that they were on the same pay roll and performed but slight services. A glaring case is that of one witness who was on this pay roll for sixteen months, namely, from August, 1927, until November, 1928, at a monthly salary of $625. He received $10,000 for such services as he himself described: ‘On one case I put in a total of about ten days. I did some other work preparing. All together I should say I put in about thirty or forty days. That is all the work I did for the district.’

The Illinois valley department had charge of actions brought against the district to recover for alleged damage to lands and crops caused by...