Enforcers @Chicago_Police Football Team Kick Off Party at @115Bourbon

The Chicago Police Football Team the “Enforcers” are entering their ninth season. The Enforcers participate in the National Public Safety Football League, which is made up of nineteen teams from all over the country. Head coach Greg Zaragoza welcomes several new and exciting players to the team. The Enforcers are made up primarily of sworn members of the Chicago Police Department and also have players who are Cook County Sheriff Officers and other local agencies. The Enforcers play to raise money for various local charities.

The NPSFL plays full contact football following NCAA rules. The Chicago Police Enforcers are a recognized 501c3 organization.

The Enforcers start the season with their annual Kick-Off party Sunday March 2nd at 115 Bourbon St. 3359 W. 115th St from 3-8 pm. The Enforcers are coming off a 2-2 season in 2013. The Enforcers 5th annual "First Responders Memorial Game" is June 7th, at Brother Rice High School. The First Responders Memorial game is between the Enforcers and the Chicago Fire Department team the Blaze. The First Responders game is always exciting with the Enforcers triumphant in 2 of those games. The game will honor members of both departments who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and also this year the game will honor the 1st Responders from Washington Illinois. The Enforcers are looking forward to making a run at another National Championship. Media members welcome.

Season Schedule 

March 29th, 2014 at Columbus Marauders @ 1pm 
 Canal Winchester High School
Canal Winchester, Ohio

April 12th, 2014 Cleveland Warriors @ 3pm
 St. Rita High School
 7740 S. Western Ave. Chicago IL

May 3rd, 2014 NYDOC Boldest @ 5pm "Gold Star Game" 
 Lane Tech High School
 2501 W. Addison Ave. Chicago, IL

May 17th, 2014 at Philadelphia Blue Flame 
 Northeast High School
 Philadelphia PA.

June 7th, 2014 CFD Blaze @ 3pm "First Responders Game" 
 Brother Rice High School
 10001 S. Pulaski, Chicago, IL

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Hakim Lowery, Fugitive Member of Bloods Street Gang, Arrested

Aaron T. Ford, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark Field Office; William Fraher, the Acting Chief of Police of the Paterson Police Department; and Gary F. Giardina, the Chief of Police of the Clifton Police Department, announced the arrest of Hakim Lowery, 35, a fugitive and alleged ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang operating in Passaic County, principally in the town of Paterson, New Jersey.

Lowery is one of 28 members and associates of the Paterson Bloods named in a superseding indictment superseding indictment charges Lowery and others with distribution and possession with the intent to distribute heroin, “crack” cocaine, and powder cocaine. Three of the defendants were also charged with brandishing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking activity and with being felons unlawfully in possession of firearms.

A number of the defendants were arrested in a weekend sweep in Paterson. As of Monday, Lowery was the only defendant who remained at large. The FBI, Paterson Police Department, and Clifton Police Departments continued their investigation and were able to locate and arrest Lowery on Tuesday evening in Paterson, New Jersey.

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Scott McLean and John A. Vassen Sentenced to Prison for Tax Sale Scheme in Exchange for Campaign Contributions to County Treasurer

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced that Scott McLean, 51, of Belleville, Illinois, and John A. Vassen, 56, of O’Fallon, Illinois, were sentenced in the United States District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois, for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Evidence presented at the sentencing hearing established that McLean and Vassen participated in a price fixing scheme orchestrated by former Madison County Treasurer Fred Bathon. Bathon structured the Madison County tax sale to permit the tax buyers to charge distressed homeowners inflated interest rates from 2005 to 2008 in exchange for campaign contributions.

“These tax buyers repeatedly gouged financially distressed homeowners with confiscatory interest rates enabled by a corrupt treasurer. This crime was a toxic combination of public corruption fueled by private greed. The people of Southern Illinois deserve better,” said United States Attorney Wigginton. U.S. Attorney Wigginton praised the work of the Metro East Public Corruption Task Force, including agents from the IRS and the FBI. “These dedicated men and women work long hours for little pay to keep the citizens of our district safe from those who seek only to enrich themselves at our expense.”

McLean was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to serve three years’ supervised release, pay a $25,000 fine, and a special assessment of $100. Vassen was sentenced to 24 months in prison, to serve three years’ supervised release, pay a $25,000 fine and a special assessment of $100. Both sentences were in excess of the recommendation from the United States Sentencing Guidelines. A third tax buyer, Barrett R. Rochman, 70, of Makonda, Illinois, also pled guilty to participating in noncompetitive tax sales on October 17, 2013. Rochman is scheduled to be sentenced on March 25, 2014.

The former treasurer of Madison County, Illinois, Fred Bathon pled guilty to antitrust charges on February 5, 2013. Bathon was sentenced on December 6, 2013, to 30 months in prison, two years’ supervised release, a fine of $20,000, and a special assessment of $100.

The charges allege that at Illinois tax lien auctions, investors bid to purchase tax lien certificates issued against delinquent tax payers. Investors are supposed to compete to purchase these tax liens by bidding on the interest rate the property owner will be required to pay prior to redeeming the tax lien attached to the owner’s property. The bid opens at no more than the statutory maximum of 18 percent and through a competitive bidding process can be driven as low as zero percent. The bidder offering the least penalty percentage rate, i.e., the bidder who is willing to allow the owner to redeem his property for the smallest penalty, is allowed to purchase the tax lien. As such, competitive bidding benefits financially distressed homeowners by reducing the amount of money that they have to pay to save their home from foreclosure; however, that same system reduces the profit made by tax buyers. Tax buyers prefer to receive high interest rates, which corresponds to higher profits.

For the tax sales conducted in 2005 to 2008, Fred Bathon structured the tax sales in a way that eliminated competitive bidding and allowed the tax buyers to engage in price fixing by only bidding the statutory maximum interest rate of 18 percent. The tax buyers who pled guilty today were charged with making campaign donations to Bathon in exchange for receiving property tax liens at non-competitive interest rates.

By 2007 and 2008, the bid rigging and price fixing was so pervasive that distressed homeowners were charged the statutory maximum interest rate on nearly every property tax lien sold. During the tax auction occurring November 14 to 15, 2007, 2,549 out of 2,574 property tax liens were awarded to bidders for the statutory maximum interest rate of 18 percent, which represented 99.03 percent of the property tax liens auctioned. During the tax auction occurring November 13 to 14, 2008, 2,290 out of 2,364 property tax liens were awarded to bidders for the statutory maximum interest rate of 18 percent, which represented 96.86 percent of the property tax liens auctioned.

The investigation was conducted through the Metro East Public Corruption Task Force by agents from the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton and Assistant United States Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft.

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Former Police Officer Convicted of Striking and Kneeing Handcuffed Arrestee in the Head and Body

A former Plymouth police sergeant was convicted of using excessive force on an arrestee and covering up his actions by falsifying police reports related to the incident.

After three hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Shawn Coughlin, 47, of deprivation of constitutional rights under color of law and falsifying a record to impede a federal investigation.

On November 19, 2011, at the Plymouth police station, Coughlin assaulted an arrestee who was in a holding cell and handcuffed behind his back. Coughlin struck the arrestee in the head and kneed him in the body, resulting in bodily injury. Evidence at trial also established that Coughlin falsified the official police incident reports regarding the incident.

“A critical component of effective law enforcement is trust,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. “Quality policing cannot exist if citizens can’t trust that the police who are sworn to protect them use excessive force and lie about their actions. It is very important to our entire system of justice that individuals who violate that trust are held accountable.”

“This investigation shows that the FBI, Plymouth Police, and the United States Attorney’s Office place a high priority on investigating civil rights violations including violations by those sworn to protect and serve. The FBI was proud to work with the Plymouth Police Department and the United States Attorney’s Office on this investigation to ensure that justice was served. Nothing justifies or excuses Mr. Couglin’s actions because it is never acceptable to break the law in order to enforce it,” said Vince Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 20, 2014. Coughlin faces up to 10 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on the civil rights conviction. Coughlin faces up to 20 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on the obstruction conviction.

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Details on Former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Moreno's Federal Prison Sentence

Former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for engaging in a series of public and personal corruption schemes over a span of three years. Moreno pleaded guilty on July 1, 2013, to conspiracy to commit extortion after he was initially charged in late June 2012, about 18 months after he left public office.

Moreno, 61, of Chicago, a lawyer who served more than 16 years as an elected county commissioner until December 2010, was sentenced to 132 months in prison, and he was ordered to forfeit $100,000 and pay a total of more than $138,000 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman. Moreno was ordered to begin serving his sentence on April 21.

“Mr. Moreno was not a reluctant participant in these schemes; he was an eager participant,” Judge Feinerman said, adding that Moreno “embraced them with gusto and pursued them with vigor.”

Moreno “repeatedly pursued his own interests at the expense of those he was supposed to serve. . . . [H]e extorted a reputable business and corrupted the highest levels of Cook County government, the Town of Cicero, and a private hospital. He also evaded taxes and suborned perjury so he could reduce his child support obligations. And when he was confronted about his crimes, he obstructed justice by providing the government with false invoices in an effort to conceal his criminal conduct,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Stetler and Megan C. Church wrote in a government sentencing memo.

Notably, they argued, Moreno conceived a motto of governing that captured his corrupt approach to public office: “I don’t want to be a hog. I just want to be a pig. Hogs get slaughtered. Pigs get fat.”

Moreno pleaded guilty to conspiracy to extort an unnamed company that was awarded a contract to help improve Cook County Hospital’s revenue cycle into using his friend and co-defendant, Ron Garcia, and his business, Chicago Medical Equipment & Supply, Inc., as a minority subcontractor in return for a $100,000 bribe. Garcia forgave a $100,000 mortgage loan to Moreno in exchange for Moreno’s efforts to steer the lucrative sub-contract to Garcia’s company, and Moreno tried to disguise the bribe by claiming that he had repaid the purported loan.

In pleading guilty, Moreno also agreed that he sought to obtain orders of Dermafill bandages from Cook County in return for kickbacks while he and his staffer, co-defendant and former Chicago Alderman Ambrosio Medrano, were Cook County officials; sought to obtain approval for a waste-transfer station in return for kickbacks while a Town of Cicero official; and evaded his federal income taxes between 2007 and 2010 by misreporting the income from his law office.

According to sentencing documents, between 2008 and 2010, Moreno engaged in those schemes, as well as five other schemes to:

• enrich himself through kickbacks in return for passing a “green” resolution while a Cook County Commissioner;
• obtain medical transcription business from Cook County in return for kickbacks concealed as legal fees;
• obtain orders of Dermafill bandages from a private hospital by bribing a hospital official; enrich himself through kickbacks while a Town of Cicero official;
• reduce his child-support obligations by suborning perjury during a court hearing.

Medrano, 60, of Chicago, the former alderman who later worked on Moreno’s countystaff, was sentenced last month to a total of 13 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in one case involving Moreno and being convicted at trial last year in a separate corruption case that stemmed from the same FBI undercover investigation.

Garcia, 54, of Homer Glen, and two other co-defendants, Gerald W. Lombardi, 61, of Darien, and his son, Jerry A. Lombardi, 34, of Downers Grove, who were agents of Chasing Lions, LLC, a disabled-veterans-owned business in Lisle that sold the Dermafill bandages, pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing. A sixth co-defendant, Stanley Wozniak, 51, of Chicago, is awaiting the disposition of charges.

The Moreno sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and James C. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.

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