Antoin 'Tony' Rezko's fate now lies with the jury

The federal corruption trial that has sent ripples through the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich has reached its final stage, and the fate of political insider Antoin "Tony" Rezko is now in the hands of the jury.

The panel that spent more than two months listening to testimony deliberated for about half an hour Tuesday afternoon after closing arguments ended.

Jurors began their work after lawyers on opposite sides of the case again clashed over the key evidence against Rezko. A prosecutor urged the jury to believe the former Blagojevich adviser was at the center of a crooked scheme to use his clout to enrich himself and his friends.

"This is a crime, ladies and gentlemen," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Niewoehner, speaking with an intensity the jury hadn't yet seen from the soft-spoken prosecutor. "This is a crime that involves the highest levels of power in Illinois."

The names of many in Blagojevich's inner circle were mentioned daily as the trial unfolded, and a shadow was cast on the governor himself as prosecutors explained to the jury how Rezko allegedly went about rewarding campaign contributors with state positions.

Niewoehner told jurors they had gotten a lesson from Rezko on how such clout could be used illegally to make money. First Rezko raised more than $1 million for the governor, and then he used the accompanying access and power to get certain people appointed to state posts.

"He's a victim of nothing but his own greed," Niewoehner said of Rezko. "And that is a victim you need not concern yourselves with."

Tuesday's final round of arguments at times sounded like a battle of the geometric metaphors.

Rezko's lawyer, Joseph Duffy, compared the case against his client to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, an engineering marvel that sits perfectly balanced on its cornerstones. The message was that the prosecution's case was unsupportable because it rested solely on the claims of Stuart Levine, a drug-addled, memory-challenged member of two boards Rezko allegedly corrupted.

Niewoehner countered with circle imagery as he argued that an array of testimony and evidence blended together to prove Rezko's guilt. "It is not some pyramid, it is a circle of evidence that all connects and works together," said Niewoehner, telling the jury Rezko should be convicted of mail and wire fraud, aiding and abetting bribery, attempted extortion and money-laundering.

Duffy, alternating between expressions of disdain and ridicule for the government's case, used some of his wrap-up to get in digs at some prosecution witnesses.

Chicago money manager and preservationist Richard Driehaus, who testified about a 2003 dinner party at which he talked to Rezko about consultant's fees for winning state pension business, was dismissed by Duffy as "the giggler" because he had a nervous laugh on the stand. Duffy suggested Driehaus was drunk when he met Rezko and his memory of the encounter was therefore unreliable.

Former state official Ali Ata, who testified that Rezko had shaken him down for campaign contributions to Blagojevich and bribes to Rezko, was the definition of a "tax cheat," Duffy declared.

But Duffy reserved his sharpest comments for Levine, who the lawyer said was a habitual crook who tried to frame Rezko to get a lighter sentence from prosecutors. Levine was so slick that he managed to sell his story to trained law-enforcement personnel whose antenna should have been up for deception.

"He conned them," Duffy said. "He got the better of them. He got his deal."

Niewoehner told the jury not to concentrate on Levine but to rely on the undercover recordings the government made in the case. Tapes don't get drunk and they don't make plea bargains with the government, he said, answering some of Duffy's criticisms of prosecution witnesses.

"Their memories don't get worse," Niewoehner said. "They don't use drugs."

The amount of each kickback was mentioned somewhere in the tapes the jury will hear again as they deliberate, Niewoehner said. He asked them to listen when complicated deals were being discussed by players in the case and note that no one stopped Levine to ask what he was talking about.

During the brief deliberations Tuesday, jurors picked a foreman. They will not deliberate Wednesday because one of them has a scheduling conflict. And perhaps signaling that deliberations could go on for a time, the panel left the judge a note that indicated it will follow a schedule much like one during the trial. That includes working a half-day every other Friday, including this week.

jcoen@tribune.com

bsecter@tribune.com

Related topic galleries: Rod Blagojevich, Lawyers, Prosecution, Corporate Crime, Joseph Duffy, Bribery, Advanced Training

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