'Lou Can Do' Prison Time On Bribery, Tax Convictions: Judge

CRESTWOOD, IL — Advanced age and poor health did not spare former Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta from receiving a one-year and one-day sentence in federal prison for taking a bribe from a representative of a red-light camera company that provided services to the village, and cheating on his taxes.

Presta, 72, appeared Monday before U.S. Judge Thomas Durkin to learn his fate after he pleaded guilty in December to federal charges of using a facility in interstate commerce in the aid of bribery and tax offenses, including failure to file a return and filing a false income tax return.

The former mayor was indicted on federal corruption charges in 2020. Presta stepped down as mayor of Crestwood last fall. According to Presta's attorneys, the former "Lou Can Do" mayor is ashamed and remorseful for his crimes.

During the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Durkin (no relation to the judge) described a scheme where Presta exploited what was supposed to be a public safety initiative when he was caught on camera accepting a $5,000 bribe from a former SafeSpeed executive, the company that provided red light camera services to Crestwood. Instead, the red light cameras became a revenue generator for the village.

“The specific nature of those actions are pretty cynical,” Durkin, the attorney, said. “This individual asked Mr. Presta to make sure the percentage of red light traffic violations that the village approved to remain high.”

According to the August 2020 indictment, the former SafeSpeed executive was Omar Maani, identified in the criminal indictment as "Individual A." Maani has since been terminated from the red-light camera company, and was cooperating with the FBI. SafeSpeed has not been charged with wrongdoing.

In a recorded phone conversation in February 2018 — when Presta was running in the Democratic primary for Cook County Commissioner — Presta told Maani how he was pressuring Crestwood Police Chief Dave Weigand to keep the red light camera violations high by applying pressure on the person reviewing the videos for violations.

“We’re starting to see the numbers again, you got a new sheriff in town,” Presta said during the recorded phone call.

A few weeks after the February phone call, the feds maintained that Presta was caught on camera receiving a $5,000 cash bribe from Maani. Durkin said the bribe was premeditated and had been discussed over multiple meetings.

“You often hear from public corruption defendants that their crime was a lapse in judgement or a one-time mistake,” Durkin said. “But that’s not the case from this defendant. This wasn’t a single mistake. He wasn’t a political novice, when it happened he had already served a full term as mayor, and he’d been a village trustee for years before that."

When visited by the FBI in September 2019, Durkin alleged that Presta didn’t lie just once about the $5,000, he lied repeatedly.

“When confronted with the video showing him accepting the cash bribe, he doubled down and said the envelope was empty,” Durkin said. “The envelope had been filled by an FBI agent prior to it being handed to the defendant.”

Knowing that the indictment was coming, Presta amended his 2018 campaign disclosures showing the $5,000 as a donation from Maani for "election worker expenses."

Durkin also brought up that even after Presta had pleaded guilty to the charges and resigned as mayor in November 2021, Presta pressured a couple who owned a building in the village where a restaurant and bar had operated. The tenants had stopped paying rent and eventually moved out. Presta and the village offered to buy the property for $450,000. When the couple rejected the offer, Presta called them at home on Jan. 3, and told the couple they’d never get a liquor license.

“A lack of liquor license would diminish the value of the property,” Durkin told the court. “The question still remains what the defendant was doing inserting himself a month and a half after he resigned. The conduct is consistent after he was indicted and contrary to his position that he was ashamed and embarrassed of his actions.”

Shame and embarrassment also did not deter Presta from running for a third term as mayor – and winning — last year, the U.S. assistant attorney said.

Durkin told the judge that it is a common dodge for elderly defendants to use poor health and age as excuses to avoid prison.

“There are 4,000 inmates in the Bureau of Prisons over 65,” Durkin said. “The Bureau of Prisons provides quality medical care to inmates.”

Presta’s attorney Tom Breen called Presta a “wonderful, wonderful, generous human being” who worked for his community without regard for his personal benefit. Breen said Maani befriended Presta “to work off his own pleas” for the government.

“Omar was the one who wanted to connect with Lou Presta to do the bidding of the investigators and at some point Lou Presta took $5,000 cash as a contribution to his campaign for Cook County Commissioner,” Breen said.

As for the couple who owned the building that the government accused Presta of threatening, Breen said the bar had been a nuisance where Crestwood police had gone on numerous occasions to break up fights and once to investigate a shooting. Strip parties were also being conducted there. As mayor and liquor commissioner, Presta had twice suspended the business’s license.

“It was a blot on the community,” Breen said. “He called one final time to see if he could wrap it up. When there was a discussion about no liquor license, that was not a threat. It wasn’t an attempt to decrease the value of the property. It was a fact that the community would not tolerate a liquor license on that lot.”

Breen said at some point Presta weighed 500 pounds and because of surgery, has lost hundreds of pounds “but he is not in good shape.” Referring to the dozens of letters that friends, family, constituents and others sent to the judge in support of Presta. “I had to turn the spigot off.”

“I don’t know if I could ever represent, and I’m putting this in quotes, ‘a political figure,’ because I really don’t find the mayor of Crestwood a political figure as it is usually defined,” Breen told the court. “I don’t think you could find a better guy, no ego, just a regular guy. [The letters] were no hustle. These are people who think he’s done a wonderful job as mayor. He’s brought money into the town. He’s brought commercial development into the town. He really has done a great job.”

Presta broke down crying when making a statement before sentencing was handed down.

“I never thought I'd be a criminal,” Presta said. “Because of what I did, I’m rightly here. I’m so very sorry for not paying my taxes and accepting a bribe as mayor. I’m 72, my wife is 81, I’m not in good health and I take a lot of pills to keep going, so I’m worry about what's going to happen to me and my family as a result of my actions.”

“I also want to apologize to the people of Crestwood,” he continued. “I loved being involved in the village and loved the people I worked for. I’m deeply sorry for letting them down and repair the harm I did to the village.”

Judge Durkin said taking a bribe and then telling “pretty outrageous lies” to federal agents were aggravating factors. The judge said he wasn’t going to take the recent activity of calling up the couple who owned the building into consideration because there were too many “ambiguities.”

“There were three separate years of tax violations. It was repeated, continuous and had to take some contemplation,” the judge said. “Oddly, you were elected a third time as mayor.”

Judge Durkin said the 75 letters he received were impressive, and whatever sentence he gave Presta would be higher “but for those letters.”

“I’ve seen a lot of letters over the years when I’ve sentenced people,” the judge said. “Many from people who barely knew the defendant.”

Presta diminished the image of Crestwood when he took a bribe and cheating on his taxes.

“To jack up red light camera tickets on anyone driving through town, including, of course, the residents, I don’t know how many of these tickets were justified. It went on a year-and-a-half after the bribe and before the interview,” the judge said. “Crestwood isn’t a wealthy suburb. It’s not Hinsdale or Highland Park. These are people who really can’t afford to be paying for these tickets that otherwise would not be given to them.”

Judge Durkin sentenced Presta to one year and one day in a federal prison, and not the 24 months the government requested. In addition, Presta is to pay $75,734 in restitution to the IRS and state of Illinois for back taxes. Presta will get one year of supervised release when he completes his incarceration.

“Age is not a defense to keep from going to jail when you commit a crime at an advanced age,” the judge said. “There has to be punishment, you can’t do this stuff and get away with it. Your actions have consequences. If you don’t pay your taxes, you go to jail. You take a bribe you go to jail.”

Breen asked that Presta be designated to the federal penitentiary in Oxford, WI, if the prison was able to accept Presta because of his medical problems.

Wherever the former mayor ends up, he is to surrender by noon, June 27.