Court date approaches in trial of former alderman

The fraud and bribery trial of former Chicago alderman and mayoral candidate Edward Vrdolyak inched closer to its September start date with the resolution of an issue involving tapes supposedly made by Stuart Levine, Vrdolyak’s alleged co-conspirator.

At a hearing Wednesday in federal court, prosecutors and defense attorneys also agreed on matters pertaining to jury selection, and ruled on the status of a government document to be filed next month,

Edward Vrdolyak was indicted last year on charges of federal fraud and bribery. The ex alderman allegedly teamed up with Chicago businessman Stuart Levine to obtain kickbacks from a real estate deal between the Chicago Medical School and Smithfield Properties Development LLC. Vrdolyak allegedly acted as a middleman between Smithfield Properties and Levine, planning to collect money from the deal for both Levine and himself.

Levine, who has already pleaded guilty to fraud and has been aiding in corruption investigations, made the tapes believed to tie Vrdolyak to the crime.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaarina Salovaara, the government had been planning to enter all the tapes as evidence, but only intended to play certain sections of them in court. U.S. District Judge Milton I. Shadur disallowed this, saying, “We do not want the jury roaming through things that they had not heard during trial.”

After the hearing, Salovaara declined to comment on to why the government wished to submit portions of tapes into evidence that would not be played in court.Vrdolyak’s lawyer, Michael Monico, also raised the issue of a document outlining the case that the government plans to file on August 4th. Monico asked that the document be sealed to the public, a request that the judge granted pending the August 7th hearing. The trial could last upwards of four weeks, Shadur estimated at the hearing. By the beginning of next month, prospective jurors will receive a letter informing them of this.  Jury selection is currently slated to begin.