{"id":90618,"date":"2016-11-06T19:30:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T00:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=90618"},"modified":"2016-11-06T19:35:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T00:35:02","slug":"chicago-official-sentenced-red-light-camera-corruption-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/chicago-official-sentenced-red-light-camera-corruption-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Official Sentenced in Red-Light Camera Corruption Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
John Bills once held a position of trust as Chicago\u2019s assistant transportation commissioner. Now the 55-year-old is serving a 10-year prison sentence for his role in a long-running corruption scheme involving the city\u2019s red-light camera contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cChicago has a well-known history of public corruption,\u201d said Special Agent Brian Etchell, \u201cbut even by Chicago\u2019s standards, this case stands out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the corruption went on for nearly a decade, and \u201cthe sheer amount of cash bribes to Bills\u2014more than $600,000\u2014was stunning,\u201d said Etchell, who investigated the case with Special Agent Craig Henderson from the FBI\u2019s Chicago Division. Henderson noted that the corruption scheme involved payments and perks that totaled more than $2 million.<\/p>\n
In 2003, Bills served on a committee seeking vendors for the city\u2019s Digital Automated Red Light Enforcement Program. That committee recommended awarding contracts to Redflex Traffic Systems, an Arizona company eventually hired to install cameras that automatically recorded and ticketed drivers who ran red lights.<\/p>\n
From the time Redflex received the contract in 2003 until Bills retired in 2011, evidence showed that the transportation official used his influence to expand Redflex\u2019s business in Chicago. That resulted in millions of dollars in contracts for the installation of hundreds of red-light cameras. Redflex was enriched\u2014and the company made sure Bills was as well.<\/p>\n
The company gave Bills cash, expensive meals, golf outings, airline tickets, hotel rooms, and more. Some of the benefits were given to him directly, while hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash was funneled to Bills through his friend Martin O\u2019Malley, whom Redflex hired to facilitate the payoffs.<\/p>\n
As a Redflex contractor, O\u2019Malley was paid lavish bonuses as new cameras continued to be added in the city. O\u2019Malley, in turn, stuffed envelopes full of his bonus cash and gave them to Bills, often during meals in Chicago restaurants. O\u2019Malley also used some of the money to buy and maintain a condo in Arizona that Bills used as his own.<\/p>\n
Bills had more cash than he knew what to do with. \u201cHe would ask co-workers to purchase airfare tickets on their credit cards,\u201d Henderson said, \u201cand then he would repay them on the spot in cash. He had his friends write him personal checks, and then he would immediately give them cash\u2014he would just hand over $3,000 right there.\u201d<\/p>\n