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Pal Given Scoop on Prison, Aide Says: Lobbyist Profited, Prosecutors Charge

Posted on: Thursday, 22 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Matt O'connor, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune

Dec. 22--Moments after deciding to locate a state prison in southern Illinois in 2001, Gov. George Ryan divulged the confidential decision to a lobbyist who was a close friend, a former top Ryan aide testified Wednesday.

Prosecutors charge that, armed with the private information, lobbyist Arthur "Ron" Swanson pocketed a $50,000 fee to lobby on Downstate Grayville's behalf, even though, unbeknownst to the town, it had already won the prison.

Nearly two months passed between the time Ryan picked Grayville for the maximum-security prison and his public announcement of the decision.

In the trial's opening statements in September, Ryan's lawyers portrayed the governor's leak of the prison site to Swanson as an innocent mistake.

But prosecutors charge Ryan steered state business to Swanson, co-defendant Lawrence Warner and other friends in return for cash, gifts and vacations for himself and his family.

Swanson pleaded guilty in 2004 to lying to a federal grand jury about a lobbying assignment that prosecutors allege Ryan arranged for him at McCormick Place.

Matthew Bettenhausen, who was Ryan's top adviser on criminal justice, testified Wednesday that Ryan's exchange with Swanson came as the governor stepped from his Capitol office on Feb. 23, 2001. At a meeting moments earlier with staffers, Ryan had decided to locate the prison in Grayville, he said.

In testimony Tuesday, another former top Ryan aide, Kevin Wright, said Swanson was among a handful of the governor's closest friends who enjoyed "walking-around rights" that gave them regular access to Ryan's office without appointment.

After he greeted Swanson, a state senator in the 1960s, Ryan briefly told him of the meeting's purpose and disclosed that the prison would be located in Grayville, one of three finalists, Bettenhausen testified.

"His reaction was favorable," Bettenhausen said of Swanson. "I believe he said, 'Well, that's good.' I then interjected and said this information is not public yet."

"Mr. Swanson said he understood," said Bettenhausen, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who now heads homeland security efforts for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bettenhausen said he knew Swanson was a former state senator but didn't realize at the time that he was a lobbyist.

At Ryan's request, Bettenhausen said, he agreed to notify Swanson when the public announcement would be made.

Swanson was unable to attend the announcement on April 12, 2001, Bettenhausen said, but at Swanson's request, Ryan acknowledged in his speech the efforts of a retired Grayville dentist in bringing the prison there.

Prosecutors allege that the same dentist, unaware Ryan had already picked Grayville, had hired Swanson a month earlier for $50,000 to lobby the state to win the project.

On cross-examination by Dan Webb, Ryan's lead lawyer, Bettenhausen said that Grayville was the consensus pick of top Ryan staffers and state prison officials, in part as an economic boon to the downtrodden town.

Under a second round of questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. Zachary Fardon, Bettenhausen estimated that Ryan had divulged the prison location to Swanson within two minutes of making the decision.

Fardon attempted to bring out that the prison was never built in Grayville, a casualty of budget cuts by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But at a private sidebar, Webb objected to the testimony, and U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer concurred.

In other testimony Wednesday, a former longtime caretaker to the elderly mother of Ryan's wife, Lura Lynn, testified that she never worked for Ryan's campaign.

Prosecutors put into evidence checks totaling $6,000 that the caretaker, Nancy Smith of Kankakee, received from the Citizens for Ryan campaign fund in 1998.

According to previous testimony, campaign disclosure reports by Ryan's campaign claimed the four checks were gifts to Smith. Ryan is charged with using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses and then failing to pay income taxes on the money.

Smith said she cared for Lura Lynn Ryan's mother, Dorothea Lowe, from 1990 until her death in 2000.

Also testifying Wednesday was Kevin Wright, the former top Ryan aide, who said Ryan's personal secretary asked him to help expedite voucher payments to a business owned by Ryan's brother, Tom, that had a contract with another state agency. Prosecutors have alleged that Warner financially helped out Comguard, Tom Ryan's financially struggling business.

mo'connor@tribune.com

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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