Levine tells about his first meeting with Rezko

They were bound to meet eventually -- Stuart Levine, an old-time political powerbroker for the Republicans, and Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

At the time of the meeting, Nov. 2, 2002, Rezko was the newer Democratic kid on the block who had put his money on Democrat Rod Blagojevich to win the governorship in just a few days. Levine was backing longtime friend Jim Ryan, the Republican.

Levine got an invitation from Dr. Ruth Rothstein, the former head of the Cook County Bureau of Health, to come have dinner at Dr. Fortunee Massuda's house, Levine testified Tuesday in federal court during Rezko's fraud trial.

Levine, at Rothstein's request, had done Massuda a favor and spoken to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board in favor of a Massuda project, and it had passed, he told the court.

Levine said Rothstein told him Massuda wanted to thank Levine properly over dinner.

It was a political who's who: the Rezkos, Rothstein, Massuda's wife, Charles Hannon and Orlando Jones, a key adviser to then-Cook County Board President John H. Stroger, according to the testimony.

Rezko introduced himself to Levine by saying they had mutual friends: Robert Kjellander and William Cellini, Levine testified.

The polite conversation then took a turn, however. Massuda expressed interest in buying the Scholl building at Dearborn Avenue and Oak Street, according to the testimony. Rezko was on the Scholl board, which was at the time selling the building to Rosalind Franklin Medical School. Levine was on the Franklin board.

The deal had been hung up by a delayed closing date.

"I asked her if she had any role in the holdup of the … closing," testified Levine. "Simultaneously, Dr. Massuda said 'no' and Mr. Rezko said 'yes.' "

Levine, who testified he planned to have Franklin eventually sell the property to Smithfield Builders and thereby pocket a kickback by using former Alderman Edward Vrdolyak as the sale agent , got angry.

He said if Massuda was behind delaying the deal in an attempt to scuttle it, he didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore, he testified Tuesday.

Rezko quickly moved in to smooth things over, Levine testified. If Levine had promised the land to someone, Rezko would take care of the delay, he said.

By when, asked Levine.

By Tuesday, Rezko said.

"It was solved the following Tuesday morning," Levine testified.