It was only 2 ½ months ago that Illinois state Rep. Bob Rita took the witness stand in the “ComEd Four” trial and memorably told a federal jury how ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan ruled his fellow Democrats “through fear and intimidation.”
On Wednesday, Rita, a 20-year House Democrat whose district encompasses parts of Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs, took another turn as a government witness, this time in the bribery trial of politically connected businessman James Weiss, a son-in-law of former Cook County Democratic boss Joseph Berrios.
Rita testified his colleague, then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo, relentlessly bugged him about making sure a sweepstakes machine provision would be included in a major gambling package Rita worked to craft that gave Chicago its long-awaited casino.
The indictment alleges Weiss paid bribes to Arroyo beginning in November 2018 in exchange for Arroyo’s promotion of legislation beneficial to Weiss’ company, Collage LLC, which specialized in the sweepstakes machines. The bribes were paid via off-the-books lobbying payments to Arroyo’s consulting firm, Spartacus 3 LLC, according to the charges.
Rita, who championed casino expansion into Chicago and elsewhere in the spring of 2019, testified Arroyo was “persistent and “extreme” in his efforts, in the Capitol hallways and on the House floor. Rita also received a text message from Arroyo to call him as the far-reaching gambling package lumbered toward passage in late May during the spring 2019 legislative session.
Rita said Arroyo took the unusual step of diverging into the issue of sweepstakes machines during a hearing on casino expansion — even to the point of saying witnesses had lied about the issue.
“He continually pressed the issue to the point that I didn’t want to talk to him any more,” Rita said. “The frequency and the persistence was pretty extreme.”
At one point in the legislative process, Rita saw an amendment to the gambling package that included legalizing sweepstakes machines. And while his name went on the amendment, he testified he was unaware of how the sweepstakes provision was added and called staff.
Rita said he opposed the sweepstakes provision, and it was removed from the ultimate bill that passed.
When asked how the sweepstakes provision was inserted into the amendment, Rita testified: “I have no idea.”
It’s not uncommon for lawmakers to have legislation introduced in their name before they can read the full text of the bill during the hectic end-of-session days.
Pressed further by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine O’Neill whether someone tried to “sneak” the sweepstakes piece into the package, Rita said: “It appears that way, yes.”
Trying to throw Rita off balance, Weiss attorney Ilia Usharovich prompted the lawmaker to acknowledge he’d accepted campaign donations from both sweepstakes proponents and opponents, including Rick Heidner, a video poker kingpin. But Rita also testified he was not improperly influenced by political donations.
When Rita was asked to identify Weiss in the courtroom, the defendant stood up immediately from his seat between his two lawyers. Rita noted a blue shirt and other clothing on Weiss.
Absent from Rita’s description was a Mickey Mouse figure on a tie Weiss was later spotted wearing as he walked through the courthouse.
Rita testified he received a “non-target letter” in connection to the Weiss investigation and other federal probes. Rita testified in the recent ComEd Four bribery-related trial that convicted top utility officials and lobbyists.
Before the trial started, U.S. Distric Judge Steven Seeger and Usharovich skirmished verbally again about the lawyer’s previous courtroom behavior in which the judge decided he would discuss the case in a hearing only with Weiss’ other attorney, Sheldon Sorosky. Usharovich maintained the judge would not let him even talk to his client in that previous hearing, but the judge disagreed, at one point likening the courtroom behavior to that in the movie “My Cousin Vinny,” which featured Joe Pesci as a bombastic lawyer.
Rita, who was on Madigan’s House leadership team at the time of the alleged scheme, is the only sitting elected official expected to testify in Weiss’ trial, which began Monday.
His account could have added importance because Madigan had made him a chief sponsor of the state’s massive gambling overhaul at the center of the indictment.
Also taking the witness stand Wednesday is former state Sen. Tony Munoz, a Chicago Democrat, who was allegedly approached by Arroyo about the sweepstakes gaming legislation.
Weiss, 44, who is married to former state Rep. Toni Berrios, is charged in a superseding indictment filed in October 2020 with bribery, wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty.
The jury of eight women and four men was empaneled at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Tuesday afternoon after more than a day of questioning in Seeger’s 23rd-floor courtroom.
The case centers on the largely uncharted world of sweepstakes machines, sometimes called “gray machines,” which allow customers to put in money, receive a coupon to redeem for merchandise online and then play electronic games like slot machines.
Since the machines can be played for free, they are not considered gambling devices. Critics, however, contend the unregulated devices, which operate in cities, including Chicago, that have banned video gambling, are designed to skirt the law.
In her opening statement to the jury, O’Neill said that Weiss desperately wanted the state’s massive gambling expansion bill to include language explicitly legalizing sweepstakes machines, but it was left out of the proposal in the 2019 spring session.
“Instead of giving up, the defendant doubled down,” she said.
O’Neill said Weiss then agreed to pay monthly bribes to get a deal done, first to Arroyo and later to then-state Sen. Terry Link, who was a chief sponsor of the gambling bill in the Senate.
“In 2019, ladies and gentlemen, the defendant had two sitting politicians on his company’s payroll,” O’Neill said. “It was all to benefit his business … the sweepstakes machines and his own bottom line.”
Weiss’ attorney Sorosky called it “1,000% false” that Weiss tried to bribe anybody, saying he agreed only to pay Arroyo as a legitimate consultant.
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It was Link, who was secretly cooperating with the FBI in the hopes of a break on his tax evasion case, who introduced the idea of a bribe during a private discussion with Arroyo, Sorosky said in his opening remarks to the jury.
“There isn’t any dispute concerning the payments that the government says Weiss paid,” Sorosky said. “We are saying those were not bribes, and those were not payments to deprive the people of the state of Illinois of the honest services of certain legislators.”
Link, who resigned from office before pleading guilty to unrelated tax evasion charges, took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon.
It’s a trial filled with political intrigue, both in the lineup of current and former elected officials expected to testify, as well as the backdrop of ongoing federal investigations swirling around Weiss’ associates, including the Cook County assessor’s office that Berrios once helmed.
One name not on the witness list is Arroyo, who pleaded guilty to his role in the alleged scheme but did not agree to cooperate with prosecutors. Seeger sentenced Arroyo to nearly five years in prison last year, calling him a “corruption superspreader.”
