Felonious Former State Rep Fingers Convicted Ex-Senator As Liar

CHICAGO — The former state representative who admitted attempting to bribe a north suburban state senator on behalf of a gambling company should be spared from prison, his attorney told a federal judge.

In November, former State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) pleaded guilty to trying to bribe former state Sen. Terry Link (D-Indian Creek) while lobbying to expand sweepstakes gambling machines.

Arroyo's attorney, Michael Gillespie, identified Link as the state lawmaker who wore a wire in restaurants in Skokie and Highland Park while arranging a $2,500-a-month bribery scheme.

"At the time Mr. Link was meeting with Mr. Arroyo to seek payment for supporting sweepstakes gambling," Gillespie said last week in a sentencing memo, "he was a cooperating witness, trying to make amends for twice committing tax fraud and lying to the government."

Link later pleaded guilty to tax fraud and resigned his senate seat and chairmanship of the county party organization. Despite multiple reports confirming that he was the state senator "in the twilight" of his political career, the disgraced Lake County Democrat continued to deny his involvement. He has not responded to a request for comment in response to Arroyo's court filing.

Arroyo's offense was "a brief dalliance with corruption, encouraged by another corrupt official working for the government," Gillespie argued.

"However corrupt the act was, the effect was immaterial in the end," he said. "Sweepstakes legislation never was meaningfully considered at the State level, and unlike Mr. Link, Mr. Arroyo has lost his pension, insurance, and pride in service."

The North Shore meetings to arrange the bribery scheme occurred in August 2019, several weeks after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a major gambling expansion bill, sponsored by Link, that earmarked Waukegan as the site of a future casino.

According to court filings, Link's sentencing has been delayed while his cooperation with federal authorities is ongoing. He is due back in court May 17 for a status hearing.

Related: Sen. Terry Link Resigns, Pleads Guilty To Years Of Tax Fraud

Gillespie, Arroyo's attorney, asked U.S. District Judge Steven Seegar not to order the former state representative to forfeit more than the $7,500 that is explicitly related to the one count of the six-count indictment to which he pleaded guilty. Arroyo is due to be sentenced Feb. 18.

In his sentencing memo, Gillespie argued that the rest of the money Arroyo received from co-defendant James Weiss's company was related to legal lobbying activities, citing grand jury testimony from former state lawmakers and one of Pritzker's former top aides.

Weiss is the son-in-law of Joe Berrios, former Cook County assessor and Cook County Democratic Party chair. A status hearing in his case has been set for March 14.