Commissioner Beavers to Appeal Guilty Verdict

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“The judge wouldn’t let my expert witness testify,” - Cook Commissioner William Beavers
“The judge wouldn’t let my expert witness testify,” - Cook Commissioner William Beavers

Cook Commissioner William Beavers, found guilty of tax evasion last week, feels he didn't get a fair trial and said his attorneys, as expected, will appeal the verdict.

"They will make a motion for a new trial on April 30," Beavers told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper from his south side office last week. "The attorneys said they have plenty of grounds including preventing my tax expert's testimony. He wanted to say on the stand that the government owes me."

Beavers said he's still reporting to work at his south side office and is not worried about anything.

"Once they file, I will know whether or not I will get an appeal bond," Beavers said. "Whatever happens, I can deal with it."

Beavers, 78, was convicted by jury on tax evasion for failing to report more than $225,000 in campaign funds as income that federal prosecutors said he spent on gambling and personal uses.

A verdict was returned last Thursday afternoon, after about two hours of jury deliberation.

It is unclear at this point as to how prosecutors are planning to deal with Beavers' planned appeal. Randall Samborn, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office called the Chicago Citizen Newspaper to decline comment "on a pending case.'"

According to the Associated Press, Beavers' defense attorney Sam Adam Jr., alleged government attorneys twisted the evidence and told jurors that prosecutors were trying to "bamboozle" them.

"The judge wouldn't let my expert witness testify," Beavers said last Friday. "The judge interviewed him in private and then put him on the stand for just a few minutes."

The former policeman and one-time Chicago alderman was convicted of all four tax counts where each carries a maximum three-year prison term.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Carrie Hamilton accused Beavers of intentionally understating his income between 2006 and 2008 saying Beavers wrote 93 checks from his campaign fund to use the money for gambling expenses at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. and never reported the money on his federal tax returns, or as a tax-exempt loan, and that he lost nearly $500,000 total from 2006 to 2008 on the slots.

Adam Jr. acknowledged Beavers might have a gambling problem, but said he used ATMs to pay for his gambling expenses, and wrote campaign checks only to cover legitimate campaign expenses. He said Beavers was repaying any campaign cash he used as loans for personal expenses.

Beavers kept thorough records of any campaign spending to make sure he was reimbursed, but there were no loan agreements regarding the money in question, Hamilton said.

During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors dozens of checks Beavers wrote to himself on his campaign fund accounts, while playing the slots at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.

Federal prosecutors said he never declared those checks on his tax returns, and never paid taxes on that income.

Prosecutors also said Beavers failed to declare a $69,000 boost he gave his pension from campaign funds, as well as $1,200 per month that he received in county expense checks -- falsifying check stubs to "deliberately impede the IRS."

By Deborah Bayliss

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