People v. Toolen, s. 82-274

• Decision Date: 14 July 1983
• Docket Number: Nos. 82-274,s. 82-274
• Citation: 116 Ill.App.3d 632,451 N.E.2d 1364,72 Ill.Dec. 41
• Parties: , 72 Ill.Dec. 41 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vincent TOOLEN, Defendant-Appellee, Harry J. Wiggs, Defendant-Appellee, Joseph Garella, Defendant-Appellee, and Ernest Allen, Defendant-Appellee. to 82-276 and 82-293.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 1364

451 N.E.2d 1364

116 Ill.App.3d 632, 72 Ill.Dec. 41

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vincent TOOLEN, Defendant-Appellee Harry J. Wiggs, Defendant-Appellee Joseph Garella, Defendant-Appellee and Ernest Allen, Defendant-Appellee.

Nos. 82-274 to 82-276 and 82-293.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

Fifth District.

July 14, 1983.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 10, 1983.

[72 Ill.Dec. 44] John Clemons, State's Atty., Murphysboro, Stephen E. Norris, Deputy Director and Raymond F. Buckley, Jr., Staff Atty., State's Attys. Appellate Service Com'n, Mount Vernon, for plaintiff-appellant

Richard E. White, Chartered, Murphysboro, for Toolen.

Mark A. Hamrock, Murphysboro, and William L. Broom III, Barrett, Morris & Broom, Carbondale, for Wiggs.

D.A. McGrady, McGrady & McGrady, Gillespie, and Paul C. Verticchio, Verticchio & Verticchio, Gillespie, for Garella.

No appearance for Allen.

WELCH, Justice:

This appeal is the result of a Jackson County grand jury investigation into the activities of employees of the Illinois Department of Administrative Services (D.A.S.), relating to the Department's Carbondale garage. Indictments were returned against Vincent Toolen, the Director of D.A.S., Joseph Garella, Assistant Superintendent of Vehicles in D.A.S.'s Division of Vehicles, Ernest Allen, Shop Supervisor of the Carbondale garage, and Harry J. Wiggs, owner of Carbondale Auto Supply. The three areas of investigation pursued by the grand jury involved allegations of payment

                [72 Ill.Dec. 45]  of a bribe to obtain an official position, allegations that D.A.S. employees had billed to the State auto parts which they used on personal vehicles, and allegations that employees of D.A.S. and Carbondale Auto Supply collaborated to present the State with false bids on auto parts.  The indictments returned pertained to all three of these areas and alleged that the offenses of bribery, theft, forgery, official misconduct, obstructing justice and perjury had been committed by the various defendants.  Pursuant to the defendants' motions, the trial court dismissed all of the indictments, and the State appeals to this court.  (87 Ill.2d R. 604(a).)   Defendnats Toolen, Garella and Wiggs, who have filed briefs, have moved to dismiss the State's appeals.  We have taken these motions with these cases, all of which we have consolidated on our own motion.  The issues raised here concern appealability, due process in the grand jury proceedings and sufficiency of the indictments.  First, a recital of the evidence presented to the grand jury is necessary
                

PAYMENT OF BRIBE

Defendants Allen, Wiggs and Garella were each indicted for a single count of bribery. The incident upon which these indictments were based was the alleged payment of $900 by Allen to Wiggs, who forwarded the money to Garella to obtain Allen his position with D.A.S. Defendants Toolen and Garella were also charged with perjury, obstructing justice and official misconduct through giving an incorrect account of these transactions to the grand jury or to investigators of the Department of Law Enforcement (D.L.E.).

In his testimony before the grand jury, defendant Allen stated that he worked for D.A.S. since July 7, 1979. He had also served as a foreman at the Carbondale garage from 1966 to 1970. After that period, he purchased a flower shop and greenhouse business, and when it was destroyed by fire, he began to work for the City of Carbondale. Allen stated that in the summer of 1979 he asked Harry Wiggs to put in a good word for him with Joseph Garella in order to assist him in again securing employment with D.A.S. Wiggs later told him that he had talked to Garella, who said that "there were three people in Springfield that would have to be satisfied with some money." The amount mentioned was $600. Allen replied that he would pay that money to obtain a job with D.A.S. He was so employed that summer, but, although he did not pay Wiggs any money before he started work, Wiggs informed him that he would have to pay $900. On August 6, 1979, Allen gave Wiggs a personal check in that amount, and Wiggs assured him that Garella would receive it.

Defendant Garella denied accepting money from Allen to secure his employment. He testified that in July, 1979, Allen approached him at the Carbondale garage and mentioned that he wanted to make a political contribution. Later that month, Garella was at Carbondale Auto Supply, where Wiggs gave him $900 claimed to be from Allen. The money was in nine one hundred dollar bills. Garella stated that he took the money to his home in Gillespie, Illinois and placed it in an envelope. Because according to Garella there was no political activity in 1980, he kept the money until December 1980 or January 1981. At that time, tickets became available for a testimonial dinner for State Representative George H. Ryan. Garella testified that he purchased six tickets at $150 apiece from Jon Bauman.

Bauman, Deputy Director of D.A.S.'s Office of Property Management, told the grand jury that he had been given several of the Ryan tickets by defendant Toolen and was asked to sell them if he could. He agreed that he had given Garella between five and ten of the tickets to sell. Bauman and Garella testified that while they were both in Chicago on business and staying at a hotel, Garella gave Bauman an envelope containing nine one hundred dollar bills, which Garella stated had been paid for the Ryan tickets. Garella conceded that he had earlier told D.L.E. investigators that he had given the money to Vincent Toolen. Before the grand jury, Garella stated that he told Bauman that the money was from Ernest Allen, but Bauman testified that Garella Ernest Allen noted that he did not get a receipt for a political contribution or tickets to a Ryan dinner. He testified that in November, 1981, he talked with Garella while Garella drove him around Springfield. According to Allen, Garella told him that his money had been used to purchase campaign tickets. Garella testified that he had informed Allen that the money had gone to Ryan, but stated that he had not discussed the contribution with Allen within six months of his grand jury testimony, which was given in January, 1982.

[72 Ill.Dec. 46] did not tell him who had purchased the tickets. Garella and Bauman both recalled that the tickets did not have stubs attached which would allow[116 Ill.App.3d 637] the name and address of the purchaser to be indicated, although Garella had informed D.L.E. investigators that he had filled out stubs for these tickets. Garella stated that Bauman did not give him a receipt, but Bauman did indicate later that he had given the money to Toolen.

Defendant Toolen, Director of D.A.S., testified that he received approximately 10 or 15 tickets to the dinner from Ryan's office and had given several of them to Bauman to sell. After the dinner was held on February 25, 1981, Toolen received an envelope containing money for tickets and unsold tickets. He said that some of the money was in cash, but probably not all of it. Toolen testified that he brought the money to Ryan's office in the Capitol building. Toolen entered the office through the main door, which had Ryan's name over it. Toolen did not recall to whom he presented the envelope, but he stated that it was customary for him to give the proceeds for fund raising events to one of Ryan's staff members, as opposed to a secretary or receptionist. According to Toolen, he did not inform Ryan's staff of the names or addresses of any of the ticket purchasers, although he stated that the tickets had stubs which could be filled out, and if they had been filled out before they were given to him, Ryan's staff would have been given that information. Toolen recalled that he did not receive a receipt for these contributions. Jon Bauman testified that Toolen had told him that he had delivered the money and tickets to Ryan's office.

D.L.E. investigator James Covert informed the grand jury that he had spoken with Speaker Ryan's Chief of Staff, Robert Knudsen. Knudsen told Covert that although Toolen had indicated that he could sell some tickets for the February, 1981, dinner, none of the staff members could remember giving Toolen any tickets. According to Knudsen, if tickets were handed to someone, their numbers would not be recorded, as they would be if they were mailed. Covert testified that he spoke to everyone who worked on Ryan's staff during the period that Toolen claimed to have delivered money and tickets to their office. None of these staff members recalled receiving money or tickets from Toolen.

Knudsen informed Covert that when an individual seeks to make a contribution to Ryan in cash, the procedure followed is to photocopy the cash and then require the individual to obtain a cashier's check so that the office would have a record of the donor's identity. The records at Ryan's Springfield and Kankakee offices failed to disclose any contributions from Vincent Toolen, Jon Bauman, Joseph Garella, Ernest Allen, Harry Wiggs or Carbondale Auto Supply. Knudsen also stated that in the last half of 1980 and the first half of 1981, Ryan's Springfield office was under repair. During that time, the main door was blocked off, and one had to enter the office through an unmarked door reached through a side hallway. In order to reach the inner staff office, in which Toolen stated that he usually turned in campaign contributions, one would have to go through Speaker Ryan's private office and not through the reception area, as would normally be required, and as Toolen indicated he did.

Covert testified that he visited the offices of the Illinois State Board of Elections, where he was told that if an individual made a contribution of more than $150 to one candidate or office holder in a single year, it would have to be reported to the Board. Covert examined Ryan's campaign financial records at the Board and determined John Wininger, who was a...