Ex-state Rep. Eddie Acevedo was forced to take stand despite objections over his dementia
CHICAGO – A top federal prosecutor wasted no time Monday revealing to the jury in ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s trial that the latest witness the government called to the stand wasn’t there voluntarily.
“You did not want to testify here today, is that right?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu asked former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, who’d just taken the witness stand moments before.
“No, I did not,” Acevedo replied, acknowledging he’d been ordered to testify and nothing he said during testimony could be used against him – unless he wasn’t truthful – due to an immunity order.
But in the half hour Acevedo was on the witness stand before trial adjourned for the day on Monday, he and Bhachu debated the truth about contracts and payments central to the feds’ case against Madigan.
Acevedo is one of the government’s last witnesses as prosecutors prepare to rest their case this week against Madigan and his co-defendant, longtime Statehouse lobbyist Mike McClain. Monday kicked off the ninth week of testimony in the trial, in which the pair are accused of bribery, racketeering and wire fraud. Madigan is also charged with extortion.
The jury was first introduced to Acevedo during opening statements and has since heard several witnesses testify about him in different contexts. In addition to being a fringe character in an episode involving the proposed development of a parking lot in Chinatown, Acevedo is one of five Madigan allies who the government alleges were pawns in bribes to the powerful speaker.
Between 2017 and 2018, records show Acevedo collected $142,500 in indirect payments from electric utility Commonwealth Edison and telecom giant AT&T Illinois. Prosecutors allege the money stemmed from no-work contracts arranged by McClain at Madigan’s request as Acevedo was a key Madigan ally in the General Assembly’s growing Latino Caucus.
Acevedo served 20 years in the Illinois House before retiring in 2017 to lobby, though neither company contracted with him as a lobbyist – only as a consultant. And in both cases, the companies put Acevedo under existing lobbying contracts so those lobbyists – who also happened to be close to Madigan – would serve as conduits for the payments.
The jury has also heard from multiple witnesses that Acevedo was not known as a hardworking legislator and that he had a reputation for being aggressive and drinking too much on nights out in Springfield.
The former lawmaker has not been charged with wrongdoing regarding the alleged no-work contract arrangement. But he did serve six months in prison in 2022 after pleading guilty on one count of tax evasion related to the payments. Two of his sons, who were also paid through the family’s consulting and lobbying firm, Apex Strategy, also served short sentences for tax evasion.
“You were upset by the fact you were charged by the federal government?” Bhachu asked Acevedo toward the end of the afternoon Monday.
“Yes,” Acevedo replied.
Despite protests from Acevedo’s attorney related to the former lawmaker’s dementia diagnosis, U.S. District Judge John Blakey last week ordered Acevedo to testify after determining he was mentally fit in a closed-door interview. Defense lawyers also opposed the government calling Acevedo as a witness, but after Blakey’s ruling, Madigan attorney Dan Collins warned that prosecutors were putting him on the stand “at their own peril.”
Acevedo’s testimony got off to a rocky start when he couldn’t remember the years he served in the House, though he did remember he’d served two decades. Though he didn’t mention his dementia diagnosis when Bhachu asked about his medical history, Acevedo acknowledged he’d had a knee replacement – an explanation for the walker he used to get to and from the witness stand. He also said he was on pain medication for the knee and on prescriptions to manage seizures, high blood pressure and “various other medications.”
As Acevedo slowly pushed his walker to the witness stand, he ambled up the center aisle of the courtroom, right by Madigan’s seat at the head of his defense table. The former speaker nodded at Acevedo as he passed. A few minutes later, Acevedo agreed with Bhachu’s characterization that he and Madigan had been friends when he served in the House.
“Would you see him often?” Bhachu asked.
“As often as he let me,” Acevedo answered. “He was a busy man.”
Acevedo said Madigan made time for him on two occasions in the spring of 2017, taking meetings in which Acevedo asked him “for recommendations” so he could pick up more consulting or lobbying work.
“I asked anyone who would listen to me, I was trying to get work for myself,” Acevedo said.
But his version of events began to conflict with Bhachu’s – and apparently what he’d previously told the FBI and a grand jury – when the prosecutor began asking whether Acevedo had done any work for his payments.
The jury has already heard from former AT&T Illinois contract lobbyist Tom Cullen, who testified about agreeing to be the intermediary for the company’s $2,500-per-month payments to Acevedo for nine months beginning in mid-2017. Cullen testified that AT&T increased the size of Cullen’s monthly retainer, and he cut Apex Strategy a check each month.
Though Acevedo was assigned to write a report on the political dynamics within the Latino caucuses of both the General Assembly and Chicago City Council, Cullen said it was understood by all parties that the assignment wasn’t real.
But Acevedo’s testimony grew confused Monday as Bhachu asked him about whether he produced any work product for AT&T. He acknowledged that he never provided a written report to AT&T, but then he insisted that he and his sons had worked on a report.
“We all worked on it together, me and my sons,” Acevedo said.
When Bhachu attempted to remind Acevedo that he told the FBI in 2019 that he’d created no work product for AT&T, the former lawmaker said he didn’t remember telling agents that.
Acevedo said he reported to Steve Selcke, one of AT&T’s internal lobbyists, and would always look for him on the rail outside the legislative chambers in the Statehouse overlooking the rotunda. It was there, Acevedo claimed, he’d give Selcke verbal reports about hearings he’d been asked to attend. He’d also tell Selcke about the Latino Caucus’ positions on certain bills, Acevedo said.
“But you didn’t do any work for Mr. Selcke, did you?” Bhachu asked.
“No, sir,” Acevedo replied.
“In fact, you didn’t do any work for the $2,500 a month you got,” Bhachu said, more of a statement than a question.
“Yes, I did,” Acevedo said incredulously. “Like I told you, I went to hearings. I went to meetings. And I would always tell Steve Selcke about what was happening.”
Bhachu then asked if Acevedo remembered testifying in front of a grand jury in 2022 and offered to let him read his own testimony in a document only he and the attorneys could see, in order to refresh his recollection.
But Acevedo complained that he didn’t have his glasses and couldn’t see the testimony, explaining to an exasperated Bhachu that he’d forgotten them as he was “rushing out of the house” Monday morning.
“Why don’t you move your face close to the screen and see if you can see that?” an annoyed Judge Blakey interjected.
Once Acevedo did so, however, he seemed just as confused about what he’d apparently told the grand jury on June 15, 2022, one week before he was due to report to federal prison in North Carolina.
Bhachu then asked about the payments Acevedo received indirectly from ComEd in 2017 and 2018.
“And ComEd never tasked you with any work assignments, did they?” Bhachu asked.
But Acevedo insisted the utility did. When Bhachu asked about an FBI interview in 2019 in which Acevedo apparently told agents that he was “never given work assignments from ComEd,” Acevedo said he didn’t remember.
Bhachu tried asking the same set of questions about the ComEd lobbyists through whom he was paid.
“You never did any work assignments for them,” he said.
“Whatever they asked me, I did,” Acevedo replied, again saying he didn’t remember when Bhachu reminded him of what he’d apparently told the FBI in 2019 about not having received any work assignments from the lobbyists.
Acevedo will return to the witness stand on Tuesday, but Blakey demanded he come prepared with glasses – “and backup glasses” – or else be held in contempt of court.
“I will go buy him a pair and bring them myself,” Acevedo’s attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti called back to Blakey as she accompanied her client out of the courtroom.