Ex-AT&T Illinois president still on the hook: Judge won't acquit after mistrial in case with Madigan ties

A federal judge declined Thursday to acquit a former AT&T Illinois executive accused of bribing ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, rejecting a long-shot bid three months after a jury failed to agree on a verdict in the case.

Jurors in the trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza heard from more than a dozen witnesses over four days in September. Key players in the alleged scheme included Michael McClain, Madigan’s longtime friend who is now on trial with him in a related case, and former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo.

At the heart of the case was legislation meant to help end AT&T Illinois’ costly obligation to provide landline telephone service to all Illinois residents. It was known as its Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, bill.

Madigan is now on trial himself for an alleged racketeering conspiracy, including the events involving AT&T. Jurors in Madigan's case began hearing evidence about the AT&T allegations this week, and Acevedo is expected to testify as soon as Monday.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman presides over the separate case against La Schiazza and authored Thursday's 35-page ruling denying La Schiazza an acquittal.

Prosecutors say La Schiazza bribed Madigan in 2017 by paying $22,500 to Acevedo while trying to finally pass the COLR legislation in Springfield. They also alleged that Madigan wanted to help Acevedo because of the increasing Latino population in Madigan’s district.

Acevedo left the Legislature early in 2017.

McClain reached out to AT&T Illinois looking for a small contract for Acevedo in February 2017. Then, two days later, McClain told La Schiazza that Madigan had assigned McClain to the COLR legislation as a “special project,” emails showed.

The contract for Acevedo suddenly became an urgent issue for La Schiazza more than a month later, on March 28, 2017, when he told his team he “got a call” and wanted them to “move quickly” on Acevedo’s contract.

Thing is, no one at AT&T Illinois was particularly impressed with Acevedo. The longtime lawmaker had a bad reputation, and Republicans threatened to vote against AT&T’s agenda if Acevedo wound up on the utility’s payroll.

So the utility wound up funneling Acevedo’s money through a firm belonging to lobbyist Tom Cullen. La Schiazza told his staff he had no objection to the arrangement, “as long as you are sure we will get credit and the box checked, and of course we have legal approval to engage Eddie this way.”

The COLR bill became law after the state House and Senate voted around July 1, 2017, to override a veto from then-Gov. Bruce Rauner. Madigan voted in favor of the bill and to override the veto.

Less than two weeks later, on July 12, 2017, La Schiazza was asked by Madigan’s son, Andrew Madigan, to sponsor a nonprofit event “at the suggestion of our good friend Mike McClain.” La Schiazza griped by email to a colleague that “this will be endless.”

He later added, “We are on the friends and family plan now.”

Prosecutors argued that La Schiazza’s comments proved the exchange of Acevedo’s job for passage of the COLR bill, calling the emails an “after-the-fact discussion of what [La Schiazza] did and why he did it.”