Second Bianchi Corruption Trial Under Way

McHenry County State’s Attorney attorney said the first day of his client’s second trial went exactly the way he thought it would.

He hasn’t changed his plan to file a motion for the judge to direct out the case as soon as the special prosecutor completes his presentation on Aug. 2. 

Terry Ekl wasn’t even surprised when special prosecutor Thomas McQueen dropped one of the three misconduct charges against Bianchi before opening arguments took place in McHenry County Court on Aug. 1. 

That charge alleged Bianchi delayed a theft case against a family member until a first-time offender program could be initiated. 

That left only two charges against Bianchi – one involving his alleged involvement in dropping a disorderly conduct charge against a politically connected Crystal Lake physician, and another involving the reduction of a sentence for a 19-year-old for two separate incidents of dealing drugs near Crystal Lake Central High School. 

McQueen alleged Bianchi showed favoritism to Tom Salvi, defendant in the disorderly conduct case, based on his social connection to the Salvi family. Bianchi is accused of receiving donations from some family members for his political campaigns and the involvement of Bianchi and members of the Salvi family in a local political action committee, which also had contributed to Bianchi’s campaign at one time. 

He also charged that Bianchi broke with protocol by dismissing the case against him without a chance of retrying it, even though Crystal Lake police had taken statements from other complainants after the story hit the headlines in June 2010. 

Patrick Salvi, who represented his brother in that case, testified that he called Bianchi before charges were filed to ask for advice. Salvi said Bianchi told him that since police are responsible for filing the charges, he supported Salvi’s plan to ask Crystal Lake police if there was a way to avoid criminal charges. But, Tom Salvi was charged anyway, although the case against him eventually was dismissed in August 2010.

Assistant States Attorney Demetri Tsilimigras, assigned to Salvi’s case, insisted dismissing the case without prejudice was not all that unusual in misdemeanor cases when the defendant has committed to counseling, which Salvi had done. 

“We had no interest in re-filing the case,” he said. 

Tsilimigras testified about his interview with the complainant, stating he offered her options for resolution — go to trial, get a plea agreement or drop the case. 

“I also told her that without a criminal background, he may not get jail time,” he said. “I was very upfront about that, but she didn’t seem too concerned with that.” 

If she had wanted to go to trial, his office would help her do that, he said. 

Salvi had also written a letter of apology to the complainant, who subsequently dropped the charges, much to the chagrin of Crystal Lake Police Chief David Linder, who testified that once the case was dropped, there was little else police could do. 

McQueen went on to argue that Bianchi influenced the length of a prison term for Jeremy Reid, who was charged with selling cocaine twice to an undercover police officer near Crystal Lake Central High School in 2010. 

The prosecutor alleged Reid was a relative of Ron Salgado, one of Bianchi’s investigators, and as such he should have disqualified himself from the case. Instead he used his influence to get the sentence reduced from five years prison to four. 

According to Assistant State’s Attorney Kirk Chrzanowski, the prosecutor in Reid’s case, the state wanted five years but Reid’s defense wanted four years. Bianchi told Chrzanowski that four years was an appropriate term for the crime, he said, so that became the plea for Reid. 

Chrzanowski further testified that Bianchi appeared to be nodding to Reid’s family members seated in the courtroom the day of the hearing. Reid’s attorney, Christopher Harmon, at the time a McHenry County public defender, also noted the nod, adding he witnessed Bianchi and Reid’s family leave the courtroom and go into the hallway. 

McQueen will call two more witnesses Aug. 2 and Ekl said he plans to spend about 20 minutes arguing his motion afterward to Winnebago County Judge Joseph McGraw, who has been presiding over the case. 

Ekl expects the judge to accept the motion, as he did in Bianchi’s first trial in March when McGraw threw out the case. 

Special prosecutors McQueen and Henry Tonigan filed the three new charges in February. 

In August McGraw denied McQueen and Tonigan’s request to quit the case due to a fear of legal retaliation from Ekl and family illness in Tonigan’s family. McGraw excused Tonigan from court if he needed to tend to the needs of the family member, but he was not excused from the case.