Bianchi trial begins, former secretary testifies

From 2005 through 2010, the office of McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi could have been labeled his election headquarters, prosecutors alleged on the opening day of Bianchi's corruption trial.

Bianchi is accused of using his office staff and resources to manage and further his re-election campaign in 2008, with his personal secretary tasked with managing contact lists, disbursing checks from his campaign fund and tracking donors for Bianchi's fundraisers, they argued.

The abuse of taxpayer resources was so rampant, Special Prosecutor Thomas McQueen said in his opening statement, that the sign outside of Bianchi's office could have read: “Office of the Committee to Re-elect Louis Bianchi.”

Bianchi, 67, was indicted in September on 21 counts of conspiracy, official misconduct and unlawful communication with a grand jury witness. His personal secretary, Joyce Synek, 62, is accused of conspiracy, perjury and obstructing justice.

Both have pleaded not guilty.

Bianchi defense attorney Terry Ekl called the criminal case “smoke and mirrors, a bunch of garbage” in his opening statement, which was peppered with sarcasm.

“(Prosecutors) are not going to be able to show to you that any document was prepared on government time,” Ekl said, adding that as an elected public official many if not all of Bianchi's actions could be construed as political.

“Part of the job is to engage in politics,” Ekl said. “He has an absolute right to trumpet the fine work of his office to anybody who will listen.”

Synek defense attorney Ernest DiBenedetto said his client's computer got a virus shortly before she was due to testify before a special grand jury and that caused some of the files to be erased.

“If (Synek) was that campaign chairman, Mr. Bianchi couldn't be elected dogcatcher in Marengo,” DiBenedetto said. “There certainly will be no evidence that she agreed with any person to commit a crime. It never happened.”

The indictment of Bianchi, a second-term Republican from Crystal Lake, came in part after another former secretary, Amy Dalby, asked for a special prosecutor to investigate her claims that she was forced to do campaign work on county time.

Dalby, who worked for Bianchi from January 2005 through July 2006, pleaded guilty in May 2009 to misdemeanor computer tampering for copying documents onto a portable disc drive. She was sentenced to probation. She now attends Northern Illinois University.

Dalby testified Monday that she sometimes felt uncomfortable in the office because she thought “that it was illegal” to perform some of her duties.

Under cross examination, Dalby acknowledged she copied files to protect herself but instead of turning them over to the Illinois Attorney General's Office, she gave them to Bianchi's political rivals more than a year later.

Ekl also suggested that Dalby's time spent working on an Italian fundraiser for Bianchi amounted to no more that 45 minutes.

Dalby's hour of testimony lacked a dramatic moment; but testimony from Thomas Carroll, Bianchi's former first assistant, ratcheted up later in the afternoon.

Carroll testified that he — during normal working hours while at the Woodstock courthouse — filled out answers for Bianchi to candidate election questionnaires from at least six news media outlets, reviewed Bianchi's speeches, and helped draft letters to supporters asking for help gathering nominating petition signatures. Carroll would make changes, have his secretary type them up, and get an OK from Bianchi, he said.

Carroll also testified that after he was subpoenaed to present a grand jury last summer with “political documents,” he had a disagreement with Bianchi, who didn't believe certain documents, such as those dealing with an informational expo, needed to be turned over.

“I said it wasn't my job to discern what the merit of value of the documents were,” Carroll said. “It was very tense. Mr. Bianchi was tense. I was tense. It was not a pleasant afternoon.”

But Ekl cast doubt on statements from Carroll, who was demoted by Bianchi in early 2009, by showing a slew of instances in which Carroll had his secretary take care of his personal matters, that he used county letterhead for personal matters, provided counsel on two real estate cases using government letterhead, spent work time writing his mother's eulogy, and used his work computer to make travel arrangements, send inappropriate jokes and visit websites like eBay and Facebook.

Carroll also acknowledged that he probably told a colleague he hoped Bianchi would resign from his post so Carroll could be appointed state's attorney.

“You hope he gets convicted so you get appointed to be State's Attorney of McHenry County?” Ekl barked at Carroll.

“I don't believe I'm hoping for anything other than that justice is done.” he replied.

The bench trial before Winnebago County Judge Joseph McGraw in Woodstock is expected to last about a week.

If convicted, Bianchi and Synek could be sentenced anywhere from probation to five years in prison.