Jim Dey: Two former state powerhouses now behind bars
Sep. 30—Fall from grace
They once were powerful politicos in Illinois and, given our state's penchant for the politically preposterous, may be again.
But, for now at least, they are Inmate Nos. 47922-509 and 53698-424, identified in civilian life as Tim Mapes of Springfield and Edward Burke of Chicago.
Burke joined Mapes last week as among the newest residents of the federal prison system.
Burke, who's 80, is being held in the minimum-security prison camp in Thomson, a community in northern Illinois. Mapes is a resident of another minimum-security prison in Pensacola, Fla.
No prison is fun, but these are Club Fed operations compared to higher-security facilities.
Mapes, who is 70, is serving 30 months in prison for lying to a grand jury investigating the Commonwealth Edison bribery conspiracy case. His old boss — former House Speaker Michael Madigan — is going to trial in October in connection with that investigation.
Given their once high profiles, this is a major moment in the history of political corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Both were political powerhouses who commanded fear and respect.
Burke is serving a two-year sentence after being convicted on a variety of charges relating to using his powerful post on the Chicago City Council to win legal business.
No formal release date has been set for Burke. But he's expected to be out in May 2026. Mapes' release date is July 23, 2026.
Exercise in trivia
Illinois is a solid blue (meaning Democrat-leaning) state, and Cook County is both the state's largest and most Democratic county.
Republicans could win 101 of Illinois' 102 counties and still lose a statewide election if Cook County came in strong for the Ds.
So the GOP is an afterthought in the Land of Lincoln, but apparently enough of an afterthought that "24-7 Wall St. Insights" decided to look further into the state of Illinois' flagging Republican Party.
While acknowledging Illinois is a lock for the Ds in November, it wrote that "Illinois' status as a blue state is an oversimplification that belies a much more nuanced reality."
"Despite its status as a Democratic stronghold, there are several parts of the state that have consistently broken with the prevailing political ideology in recent elections. According to voting records, there are 34 counties in Illinois where an average of at least 65% of voters have supported the Republican candidate across the last four presidential elections," the online publication stated.
The GOP counties are mostly small and rural.
Among the largest were Adams County (population 65,000), Woodford County (38,000) and Clinton County (37,000).
Among the smallest were Edwards County (6,100) and Jasper County (9,200).
The most Republican county in the state was identified as Wayne County, located in the southern part of the state known as "Little Egypt." Over the last four presidential elections, the average popular vote was 19.4 percent for Democrats and 78.5 percent for Republicans.
Coming in at No. 2 was Edwards County, and No. 3 was Effingham County.
Stop him before he Kills again
If college football fans in Illinois don't recognize the name Jerry Kill, they should.
Over the course of his long career, he was a hugely successful head coach at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
He was so successful that he eventually worked his way up the ladder to the head job at the University of Minnesota. But along the way, he was plagued by seizures that threatened his health and drove him into retirement.
Or did it? Oh, Kill retired all right. But then he un-retired — many times over.
He repeatedly came back and then left, working stints as an adviser to head coaches at Virginia Tech and Texas Christian. He was the interim head coach at TCU after administrators there ousted the head coach.
Kill even was a temporary athletic director at SIU-C.
Last year, he held the head job at New Mexico State, where he enjoyed a 10-win season, clobbered Auburn at Auburn and took the team to its first bowl game in more than 60 years.
Then he retired — again — and came back — again.
Two weeks ago, Kill was on the sidelines in Columbia, Mo., where his new team — Vanderbilt — lost to highly ranked Missouri in overtime.
"Wobbly Missouri almost fell victim to a (Jerry) Kill shot," a St. Louis Post-Dispatch headline stated.
"Jerry Kill just can't quit coaching. And his love of the game — and coaching offense in particular — nearly cost Missouri deeply," the P-D wrote.
Kill, who is just 63, has an "offensive advisor" job title, a coaching habit he can't lick and no shortage of admirers in his profession who enjoy his company on the sidelines.
New title for 'Da Mare
Just call her Madam President.
That's a new and additional title for Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen.
She recently was elected as the new president of the Illinois Municipal League. Best of all, Feinen said she spent "absolutely nothing" on her election effort.
But there's bad news, too. Feinen is limited to a one-year term.
Despite that, Feinen, who is serving her third term as mayor, said she feels "fantastic" about it.
"It's a great honor, but I take the job seriously," she said.
The Illinois Municipal League is a Springfield-based organization whose members include almost all of the small and large cities/villages/hamlets/whatever in the state.
As president, Feinen said her job will be to work with other municipal officials as well as legislators to promote the best interests of municipal government.
"A lot of it is interaction related to legislation," she said. "We work on issues from small to big."
As a board member since 2020 and vice president of the league, Feinen said she expected to be elected president. But she said, "they still have to vote for you."
He's out
The Illinois Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a Danville lawyer who admitted stealing money from a client's trust.
In addition to the one-year suspension, the high court ordered that Terrence R. Miles not be allowed to resume work as a lawyer "until further order of the court."
That means that Miles would have to demonstrate rehabilitation before regaining his license, a process that is traditionally lengthy and extremely challenging. The court also ordered Miles to pay restitution for misappropriating $11,323 over a period of years.
Miles did not contest the allegations, but he aggravated his problems by not participating fully in the hearing held by the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission.
"After initially participating in the proceedings, including admitting all of the alleged facts, (Miles) failed to appear at the hearing," high court officers stated.
Miles was among seven lawyers who were disbarred as a result of recent ARDC disciplinary reviews and 10 others who were suspended.
The trust was established by the late Robert E. Marlo, who made a $40,000 bequest to his then-12-year-old grandson. The trust was intended to assist the boy's "care, maintenance and education until he reaches age 30."
Miles, however, established in his name a separate account to hold interest generated by the trust. He used the proceeds to pay his own expenses.
The wrongdoing was discovered when a lawyer hired by Marlo's now adult grandson made inquiries with Miles about the status of the trust.
There were two other well-known lawyers, both from Chicago, disciplined by the high court.
One was Jeffery M. Leving, who advertised widely as a leading divorce lawyer for men. The facts in Leving's case suggested he was more interested in his clients' money than his clients' cases.
The ARDC found that Leving "charged and collected excessive legal fees in eight domestic relations matters."
He was suspended for five months, "with the suspension stayed after 60 days by a two-year period of conditional probation."
The other case involved Patrick Daley Thompson, a relative of the powerful Daley Chicago political family. Daley was convicted criminally of income-tax fraud and making false statements for his role in a bank collapse. In addition to serving a prison sentence, he's suspended from practicing law for three years, "retroactive to the date of his March 2022 interim suspension."
