Jury deadlocks, mistrial declared in federal bribery case of Illinois state senator

A federal judge on Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of state Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, after a jury deadlocked in their deliberations over whether Jones agreed to take bribes from red-light camera entrepreneur-turned-government cooperator Omar Maani in 2019, then lied to the FBI about it.

The senator, who’s served 16 years in Springfield since he replaced his father – former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr. – was charged with three counts of bribery and lying to the FBI. Before they began deliberating Monday, jurors heard eight days of arguments, evidence and testimony, including from Jones himself.

The jury sent an initial note indicating they were at a stalemate on two of the counts late Wednesday, which was met with a legally required instruction from the judge encouraging further deliberations Thursday morning. But nearly 23 hours into deliberations early Thursday afternoon, the jury sent another note telling the judge they’d deadlocked on all three counts.

“The jury cannot come to a unanimous verdict on all three counts,” the note read. “No one is willing to surrender their honest beliefs.”

After polling individual members of the jury while white noise blasted through the courtroom’s speakers, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood said the majority of jurors believed further deliberations would be unlikely to change anything.

The judge then declared a mistrial over the objections of Jones’ attorneys, who wanted the jury to keep deliberating.

“The lack of unanimity in jury room is evidence the government has not met its burden beyond a reasonable doubt,” Jones attorney Joshua Adams told the judge.

But the judge said case law did not support forcing the jury to keep deliberating for that reason and cited the number of hours it had spent in the jury room and the complexity of the case as weighing in favor of a mistrial, which prosecutors supported. She then set the next hearing in the case for June 10.

Jones’ face was placid as Wood went through her rationale to declare a mistrial. While he had several family members present for each day of trial, the courtroom gallery was filled mostly with members of the media.

On his way out of the courtroom, Jones remarked that now he’d have to “go back to work.”

Flanked by his attorneys and stepmother, Jones gave a brief statement before leaving the Dirksen Federal Courthouse Thursday evening.

“I want to thank the judge, thank the jury, thank the prosecution and most importantly, thank my lawyers,” he said. “I look forward to another fight.”

Jones’ father, the former Senate president, attended most days of trial, listening as his son was accused of benefitting from nepotism and he was accused of having practicing politics that included accepting personal favors.

It’s the third high-profile federal public corruption trial in seven months to end in a hung jury. In February, jurors deliberating former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s case deadlocked on six of the 23 counts while convicting him on 10 and acquitting on seven. And in September, a judge had to declare a mistrial after jurors deadlocked on all five counts alleging the former president of AT&T Illinois bribed Madigan in 2017.

In closing arguments Monday, Jones’ attorney Vic Henderson accused the feds of employing the “Dirksen two-step,” referring to the Dirksen Federal Courthouse where a parade of elected officials have either gone to trial or pleaded guilty over the years. He asked jurors to set aside any bias they might have against Chicago politicians given the “long history” of corruption cases brought to the courthouse.

“It has happened time and time and time again in this building,” Henderson said. “So when yet another government official comes here and is charged, there’s this feeling, ‘Here we go again.’ ... But judge asked each and every one of you if you can be fair.”

Jones last week made the risky decision to testify in his own defense. The last time a sitting state official took the witness stand in their own corruption trial was 20 years ago, when then-state Rep. Patricia Bailey testified in a bench trial before being convicted on election fraud and forgery charges.

During their closing arguments Monday, prosecutors poked holes in Jones’ claims both on the witness stand and to the FBI during a Sept. 24, 2019, interview at his home that Maani made him uncomfortable. Jones last week told the jury that he was trying to avoid taking money from Maani, saying he gave off the vibe of a “used car salesman” and that he was aware Maani was trying to bribe him.

As the pair dined at Jones’ favorite Chicago steakhouse on July 17, 2019, Maani pushed Jones to give him a number for a campaign contribution. After demurring, Jones finally came up with a figure: $5,000.

“If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good,” Jones said after Maani pushed him to come up with a number. “But most importantly, I have an intern working in my office and I’m trying to find him another job, another part-time job while he’s in school. … Do you all have any positions available?”

In closing arguments, Henderson said at that point in the dinner, the senator still believed Maani was trying to participate in a “legitimate fundraiser,” and was just trying to make good on a promise he made to help his former intern find a part-time job.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri said the fact that Jones was still willing to move forward with Maani even after the FBI cooperator hinted that the contribution and job would be part of a bribe indicate that Jones had no objections.

Kolluri showed the jury an email Jones sent to Maani the week after their July 2019 meeting.

“Had a great time at dinner last week, looking forward to the many more good times my friend,” Jones wrote in his July 24, 2019, email to Maani that contained his former intern’s resume.

“Is that a person who feels uncomfortable around Omar Maani?” Kolluri asked the jury. “Is that evidence of a person who doesn’t want to accept a bribe? No. This is evidence of someone who knows and is a willing participant in this process.”

Road to trial

Even without testifying in his own defense, Jones is also an anomaly as the only sitting state official in more than a decade to take his case to trial; in 2014, then-state Rep. Derrick Smith was convicted on bribery charges.

But the feds’ wide-ranging public corruption probe first made public in 2018 has mostly resulted in elected officials either resigning or pleading guilty after being hit with charges.

Jones, however, told the jury last week that he decided to fight his charges even before they were filed. During a September 2021 meeting at federal offices downtown, the senator and his then-attorney watched the hours of secretly recorded meetings with Maani and the September 2019 FBI interview.

Jones claimed to the jury that after seeing the tapes in full, he concluded the feds “tried to twist what I was saying” when he was initially shown “snippets” of the recordings in February 2020 after his attorney received a letter that charges were imminent.

When charges finally came down in September 2022, Jones declined to resign, despite pressure from Senate leadership and even Gov. JB Pritzker. He won another four-year term to the Illinois Senate in November of that year and has remained barred from his previous leadership roles, including chairing a committee.

In addition to Jones’ surprise testimony, the jury also heard from Maani, whose own bribery charge was dismissed in 2023 in fulfillment of his deferred prosecution agreement. While on the witness stand, Maani acknowledged having paid bribes for nearly his entire career, which continued with the FBI’s blessing and assistance after he began cooperating with the feds in January 2018.

Maani’s cooperation led to guilty pleas from a handful of public officials involved with Maani and his businesses, including then-Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, who received $75,000 in cash from Maani, never knowing the cash was provided by the FBI. At a dinner between the three in late June 2019, Sandoval hinted at benefits he received from Maani and told Jones that Maani “wants to be your friend.”

Maani testified that he worried Jones’ proposed legislation calling for a statewide study of red-light cameras would be a “prelude to a ban,” which would decimate his industry. Jones had refiled similar legislation for several years in a row, but the only time it got close to becoming law was in 2017 when the scope of the study was negotiated down to just the city of Chicago.

Since Maani’s company SafeSpeed operated only in the Chicago suburbs, Maani wanted Jones to limit his 2019 legislation in the same way.

After Maani agreed to both Jones’ $5,000 suggestion and the job request for his former intern at their July 2019 dinner, the senator then asked Maani, “What can I do about Chicago?”

According to the feds, that was the moment Jones agreed to the bribe.

Job for former intern

Prosecutors also called two FBI agents who worked on the case, as well as Jones’ former intern, Christopher Katz. In the summer of 2019, Katz had just received his associate’s degree and was about to start an architecture program at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Katz told the jury he needed “some money coming in” to help pay for school and was seeking Jones’ assistance to get a part-time job.

Jones testified that he’d asked Maani for help because he’d seen dozens of college students working at SafeSpeed when he was invited to tour the company’s offices in April 2019. Though Maani initially said Katz could work as a “reviewer” of red-light camera footage, by his next meeting with Jones a few weeks later, Maani told Jones he was reticent about having SafeSpeed hire Katz.

“It looks really goofy and concerning that we’re now hiring his intern with someone who’s sponsoring negative legislation against us,” Maani testified earlier this month.

Instead, Maani floated the idea of hiring Katz to work for him directly on a research project. And a few days later, Maani called Jones to tell him that he planned to put Katz “on my payroll” even though he didn’t have much work for him to do at the time.

Katz ended up receiving a total of $1,800 in weekly payments from Maani over the course of six weeks until the feds’ investigation – and Maani’s role in it – was made public on Sept. 24, 2019.

“The defendant knew this was not a normal job,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Ardam said Monday, pointing out Jones had told Katz he “got the job” in mid-July even before he’d sent Katz’s resume to Maani. “What that means is the defendant knew this was part of the bribe.”

A ‘quiet’ campaign contribution

In addition to being cautious about hiring Katz at SafeSpeed, Maani also told Jones he needed to “conceal” any campaign contribution he might make, telling the senator he was wary about his colleagues growing suspicious or generating a story for the news media.

At their third and final dinner on Aug. 8, 2019, Maani asked Jones how he could contribute to the senator’s campaign without it having to be reported on public campaign finance records.

Jones suggested that Maani could help sponsor a job fair in his district, mentioning sponsors often pay for food or giveaways at the events. Jones explained during his testimony that in-kind contributions like those under $150 don’t need to be reported, and claimed he was thinking that Maani would pay for some boxes of pizza or a case of bottled water, though he didn’t mention the $150 threshold during their dinner conversation.

“OK, and there’s enough stuff for me to cover for five grand?” Maani asked?

“You don’t necessarily have to – ” Jones began to answer before Maani cut him off, telling the senator he didn’t care how it was done, so long as “everything’s kinda quiet.”

After again telling Maani that event sponsors usually just paid for food, Jones again turned the conversation to his former intern.

“I’m not really worried so much with you helping me,” Jones said. “Just help Chris out.”

Jones’ attorney Henderson on Monday pointed to that moment in closing arguments as proof Jones was attempting to dissuade Maani from giving him any money. Henderson reiterated that Jones never brought up the contribution after it dawned on him that Maani was trying to bribe him.

“Why would somebody on the take say don’t give me any money?” Henderson asked. “Why would somebody who doesn’t know their calls are being listened to say, ‘don’t give me any money?’ Why? Because he’s not on the take.”

But Ardam said Maani’s references to wanting to “conceal” the contribution were “giant red flags.”

“The defendant knew this was a bribe,” Ardam said Monday. “A bribe is a crime, and crimes need to be hidden.”

Alleged lies to FBI

But when a pair of FBI agents knocked on Jones’ door the morning of Sept. 24, 2019, Jones denied having discussed with Maani how a campaign contribution could be made without having it publicly reported.

That was one of three specific lies the feds allege the senator told during the interview, which was secretly recorded. The agents told Jones they were investigating Sandoval, who later died after pleading guilty, but did not reveal they were also investigating Jones.

When Special Agent Timothy O’Brien asked whether he and Maani came up with an amount Maani was going to donate, Jones said, “no, no no.”

Kolluri on Monday told the jury that Jones’ response to that question “was intentional.”

“He knew he’d broken the law,” the prosecutor said. “You’ve heard the recording of that interview and you know he was not truthful.”

In the interview, Jones also denied knowing that Katz was getting paid, despite he and Maani agreeing that $15 an hour was fair at their last dinner six weeks prior.

The feds also say Jones lied about his promise to “protect” Maani and SafeSpeed from then-state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, a friend of Jones’ who was also in favor of legislation to study red-light cameras but only because he wanted to see the industry abolished in Illinois.

Kolluri on Monday told the jury the FBI agents were just two of the people or circumstances Jones blamed for landing him in court.

“Not once did he take any accountability for any of this or express any regret,” the prosecutor said. “But most importantly, he lied to you.”

Kolluri said that in addition to lying to the FBI, Jones lied on the witness stand.

“He had an answer for almost everything, the same thing he said Omar Maani did,” Kolluri said, hearkening back to Jones’ description of Maani in testimony last week. “But the problem with lying is it always catches up to you.”

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