"Ghost payrolling, tax fraud, obstruction of justice, witness tampering -- you might think we were talking about the Chicago Outfit," said Robert Grant, special-agent-in-charge of the FBI's Chicago office. "Sadly, we're talking about the Melrose Park Police Department."
Grant, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine held a news conference Friday morning to lay out their case against former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo and six current and former officers and village employees who "act as predators over the very people they were sworn to protect," Grant said.
A federal grand jury handed down an indictment Thursday against the men.
Both county and federal investigators were looking at Scavo's police department and decided to combine their investigations, Fitzgerald said. They found Scavo had been muscling businesses in the near west suburb to hire his private security firm, which used Melrose Park officers on city time, authorities said.
Investigators don't believe they have yet found all the victims and witnesses to the alleged corruption under Scavo, and Grant encouraged other victims and witnesses to call the FBI.
Fitzgerald and other federal officials on Friday also outlined their case against former state Department of Corrections Director Donald Snyder, who allegedly took $50,000 in bribes from two lobbyists to steer state contracts to their firms. Those lobbyists include former Cook County Undersheriff John Robinson and Larry Sims. All three were named in an indictment also handed down Thursday.
"All three men, . . . sadly, are former law enforcement people," Grant noted.
'Wait, wait . . .'
Reporters put Fitzgerald on the spot at Friday's news conference asking if he had fun the previous night taping an episode of National Public Radio's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" at which the hosts tested his knowledge of scooters other than his former prosecution target Lewis "Scooter" Libby and asked him if he had a girlfriend.
"You sit there and realize you can't leave," Fitzgerald said.
"Like appearing before a grand jury?" Fitzgerald was asked.
"Yes," he said, laughing. "Except it's not as serious."
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