Chicago mayor's former aide sentenced

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - A former high-ranking aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley was sentenced Monday to nearly four years in prison for covering up illegal patronage hiring at City Hall.

"The offense is corruption -- corruption with a capital C," U.S. District Judge David H. Coar told 43-year-old Robert Sorich. "For people to owe their jobs to political advancement rather than performance on the job stinks."

The judge added: "I don't give a hoot whether this has been going on for 200 years -- it still stinks."

Sorich and two other men were convicted July 6 in a scheme to make sure political campaign workers got city jobs and other applicants were frozen out. A fourth defendant was convicted of making false statements when asked about the scheme. All are former city officials.

The mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Sorich, the former No. 2 man in the mayor's office of intergovernmental affairs, was given the minimum 46-month sentence and fined $10,000. At least 200 supporters flooded the courtroom, some crying, others hugging Sorich.

"I stand before the court and my friends and family to let them know that I am not a broken man," Sorich said. "As I stand before them I am a lucky man because I have their support. I have tried to do my best and I have tried to be fair."

Timothy McCarthy, 35, a one-time Sorich aide, was sentenced Monday to 18 months. The judge said he gave McCarthy a break because he had provided prosecutors with important information.

Prosecutors said the defendants rigged interviews and falsified documents to hide that city officials were violating a 30-year-old court order that bars the consideration of applicants' political affiliation in doling out all but about 1,300 of the 38,000 jobs on Chicago's city payroll.

Sorich's attorneys said he made recommendations on who should be hired with an eye toward ensuring diversity. They denied he had forced the hiring of any specific applicant.

The case was part of a larger investigation of city corruption that began with bribes paid to city officials by trucking company operators and expanded into City Hall hiring practices. So far, 44 people have been charged and 41 convicted. Two are awaiting trial, and one has died.