Levine's calls show arrogance, mocks system

They are portraits in arrogance and disdain for honest government.

Tapes of Stuart Levine played at the corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko Wednesday reveal Levine bragging to himself and others about how he rigged a crooked vote to approve a Mercy Hospital building in Crystal Lake.

"There was nobody could have done this but me," Levine says gleefully on a phone call.

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The tapes also show how he used a disdainful profanity to refer to any state board members who actually considered voting on hospitals on the merits, rather than on who told them how to vote.

And how he regarded as "arrogant" Pamela Davis, CEO of Edward Hospital in Naperville, because she dared not to play along with his extortion.

"Can you imagine that bald-faced, lying (expletive)?" he says, exasperated, using a term for a woman that many people find highly offensive.

And lastly, they show a man who's not as smart as he thinks he is, talking in detail on the phone about his crimes as FBI tape is rolling and laughing with a friend about Davis' comment that she would see Levine's friend in prison.

"Maybe she knows something we don't," says Levine, laughing.

She did.

What Pamela Davis knew was that she had gone to the FBI when she began getting pressure to hire Kieferbaum Construction for a proposed hospital in Plainfield. Although she already had a much lower bid from Turner Construction, the word had come down from people connected to Levine, a member of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, that if she hired Kieferbaum, she'd have a much better chance of getting approval.

So, the FBI put a tap on Levine's phone a short time before a crucial vote on April 21, 2004, and recorded him maneuvering with others to extort bribes from hospitals.

Among the phone calls played Thursday for the jury were calls between Levine and Jacob Kieferbaum, arranging for Levine to "accidentally" run into Kieferbaum and Davis at the Eggshell Caf#233; in Deerfield so Kieferbaum could convince Davis he was close to Levine.

But when Davis declined to hire Kieferbaum, Levine decided not to intervene with Antoin "Tony" Rezko to get Edward approved -- unlike how he had intervened with Rezko on Mercy, he claimed.

Rezko was a key member of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's kitchen cabinet at the time, and prosecutors and witnesses have contended that Rezko controlled a majority of the hospital board and could have the board pass whatever he wanted.

At the April 21 meeting, Mercy was approved in a highly irregular vote with Levine actually getting up and whispering in board members' ears to get them to vote his way.

Afterward, Levine shared details of the day with friend Robert Weinstein, telling him how things went.

"There was nobody who could have done this but me," Levine said.

In the call, Levine laughs about the fact that the public and political insiders would likely think that Mercy's hiring of lobbyist Victor Reyes is what obtained passage from the board.

"Of course, none of them know it's Tony and me," Levine tells Weinstein on the tape.

Asked what that meant, Levine said that no one knew Rezko's real motivation for pushing through the Mercy vote -- when Rezko had previously pledged to block it -- was that Rezko and Levine had agreed to split at least $1 million in bribe money from Kieferbaum.

Later in the evening, in a phone call to Steven Loren, a lawyer who was in on the deal, Levine rails about Davis' actions at the meeting. Apparently, when Edward Hospital's application was denied, Davis got up in the middle of the meeting and stormed out.

"What an arrogant (expletive). What an arrogant (expletive). She is absolutely appalled that she didn't get her (approval)," Levine says. "I just cannot believe that that woman got up and walked out."

Little did Davis know, when she walked out, Loren tailed her to the lobby and eavesdropped on her and Edward's lawyer from around the corner. The lawyer was trying to persuade Davis to return to the meeting. Loren recounted for Levine what he had heard Davis tell the lawyer, quoting her as saying, "I wanted to tell him (planning board Chairman Thomas Beck), 'Next time I see you, you'll be in prison.' "

"Maybe she knows something we don't," said Levine, although he clearly didn't think so, because the two then laughed about that possibility.

Levine also talked in the two calls about two South suburban hospitals that would be considered at the next meeting and he scoffed at how some board members were holding off on committing to a vote.

"People on the board actually sit there and want to see which one's the best one. Those (expletives)," Levine says, and later says he doesn't even read about the merits of the projects before him. "I don't read a god-(expletive) thing. #8230; That'd be a full-time job."

Although Levine talks in the calls about Rezko being in on the deal with him, Rezko's attorneys maintain Levine was lying about Rezko's participation to build himself up.

Earlier Thursday, Levine told how Kieferbaum asked him for his support on the Crystal Lake project in 2003. Levine then met with Rezko in the fall and was told the Mercy Hospital plan was flawed and didn't stand a chance at the health board.

"I said, 'Would it make a difference if you and I made a lot of money if Mercy got its certificate of need?'" Levine recounted

"I told Mr. Rezko Kieferbaum would be capable of raising significant political contributions for the governor plus pay a substantial bribe," Levine said.

Rezko responded, "You bet," Levine said.

Also Thursday at the Rezko trial, a juror was apparently dismissed from the trial. No reason was given, but the juror was one who had been coughing and sniffling since almost the beginning of the trial. There are now 12 jurors and five alternates remaining.