In the Courts

On Sept. 3, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the conviction of Eugene Mullins, former Director of Public Affairs and Communications for Cook County, IL, and former Chicago police officer, who was convicted of three counts of wire fraud and four counts of bribery for steering government contracts in return for kickbacks. U.S. v. Mullins, No. 14-1701, 2015 WL 512856 (7th Cir. Sept. 3, 2015). Mullins was sentenced to 51 months in prison and was ordered to pay over $34,000 in restitution and forfeiture. In his appeal, Mullins challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, and cited prosecutorial misconduct. The Seventh Circuit affirmed.

As the Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Mullins was permitted to approve Cook County contracts valued at less than $25,000, while contracts above that amount were sent to the Board of Commissioners for authorization. As part of his scheme, Mullins, in his County position, helped vendors obtain professional and managerial service contracts, after which they performed no work, by submitting false documents to the County. The fraudulently awarded contracts included a disaster relief contract, an energy grant contract, and two census contracts. In return, Mullins collected nearly $35,000 in bribes. At trial, numerous employees testified that it was County policy to pay the selected vendor only when the work had been completed, a procedure not followed by Mullins. Moreover, to avoid prosecution, several co-defendants and vendors who had been awarded contracts all testified to instances where Mullins demanded thousands of dollars in cash for alleged payments to an unidentified “subcontractor.” These improper payments, it was later discovered, were pocketed by Mullins. In return for their testimony, each of the four vendors were placed on probation and ordered to pay full restitution to Cook County.