{"id":338816,"date":"2010-02-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a8b4d1fc970b"},"modified":"2010-02-19T14:53:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T19:53:08","slug":"state-supreme-court-rules-no-pension-for-jailed-george-ryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/338816","title":{"rendered":"State Supreme Court rules no pension for jailed George Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir <\/em>at 5 a.m.; last updated at 1:53 p.m. with Thompson, Madigan reaction<\/strong>
<\/br><\/p>\n

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court today ruled that imprisoned ex-Gov. George Ryan should not get get any of his state
\npension because of his federal conviction on political corruption charges.<\/p>\n

The 6-1 decision means Ryan, who turns 76 next week, won’t be able to start collecting about $5,900 a month, or around $71,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Justice Bob Thomas, the former Bears kicker, wrote the majority opinion against Ryan.<\/p>\n

"George H. Ryan Sr. has clearly forfeited all of the pension benefits he earned from the general assembly retirement system. As the victims of Ryan’s crimes, the taxpayers of the state of Illinois are under no obligation to now fund his retirement," the opinion reads. You can read it\u00a0by clicking here<\/a>. <\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

Justice Anne Burke, wife of Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, was the lone dissenting justice who favored Ryan getting some of his pension back. She wrote that the court majority ignored precedent and "incorrectly construes the forfeiture provision" in state pension law.<\/p>\n

"I would conclude there is a connection between the felonies and Ryan’s position as governor and secretary of state," Burke wrote. But "there is no such connection between the felonies and Ryan’s position in the General Assembly or as Lieutenant governor. … Without such nexus, there is no basis to disqualify Ryan from receiving those benefits related to these positions."<\/p>\n

The $71,000 estimate is
\nbased on his years as a Kankakee County board member, state lawmaker
\nand lieutenant governor for two terms under then-Republican Gov. Jim
\nThompson, who argued on Ryan’s behalf before the state Supreme Court. Thompson also is asking<\/a>
\nPresident Barack Obama to grant a clemency request to release Ryan from
\na federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. to be with his ailing wife, Lura Lynn
\nRyan.<\/p>\n

"It’s deeply disappointing, not only to me, his counsel, but to the governor and his family," Thompson said. "He now not only sits in the penitentiary at the age of 76, having served two years already, but now there is no hope for he and his family. So he’s not only lost his office, his name, his reputation, but he’s lost his pension even for the years he served faithfully. He’s lost his Social Security. He has nothing."<\/p>\n

Thompson said he would not ask the court for a rehearing, saying he did
\nnot know how he could persuade a majority of justices to change their
\npositions if Burke could not persuade them already.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"So this is the end," Thompson said.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>A woman who answered the phone at the Ryan home in Kankakee today said Lura Lynn wasn’t available.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the office is pleased with the decision.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cFormer Governor Ryan breached the public trust by using his state government positions to engage in criminal conduct," spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said. "His actions were exactly the type of misconduct that the pension forfeiture law is designed to deter.\u00a0 This decision confirms that public officials cannot be allowed to benefit from conduct that violates the public trust."
<\/br>
<\/br>At the center of the closely-watched case was whether Ryan could receive credit for time he spent in government positions up until he became secretary of state and governor — time not covered by a lengthy federal investigation into his tenure as a public official.<\/p>\n

Thompson told justices last year that Ryan deserves the pension because the crimes he was convicted of are linked to his service as secretary of state and governor, a 12-year span ending in January 2003.<\/p>\n

Ryan was found guilty in April 2006, of steering state contracts and leases, including a $25 million IBM computer deal, to political insiders while he was Illinois secretary of state during the 1990s and then governor for one term.
<\/br>
<\/br>In return, he got vacations in Jamaica, Cancun and Palm Springs, and collected gifts ranging from a golf bag to $145,000 in loans to his brother’s foundering business.
<\/br>
<\/br>Ryan now is serving a six-year, six-month prison sentence. He reported in November 2007 and could be released July 4, 2013, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
<\/br>
<\/br>Ryan retired with a $150,691 salary as governor, but his 36 years climbing the ladder of local and state politics allowed him to collect about $200,000 a year until he was convicted. He and his wife, who is suffering from a terminal lung disease, also lost health benefits.
<\/br><\/p>\n

Thompson asked state pension board members following Ryan’s conviction to give "Gov. Ryan and Mrs. Ryan the pension to which he is entitled, the pension for service which had nothing to do with the facts leading to his conviction — as though he left public life at the end of his second term as lieutenant governor."<\/p>\n

"That is the appropriate thing to do. That is the right thing to do. That is what the law of Illinois demands that you do," Thompson said.<\/p>\n

The pension panel, made up of lawmakers and retirees from both parties, rejected that argument and stripped Ryan of his pension. <\/p>\n

A circuit court judge agreed with the pension board’s ruling, but an appellate court sided with Ryan.<\/p>\n

So the case went to the state’s highest court, which reversed the appellate decision.<\/p>\n

"The trust to which Ryan was unfaithful was that which he owed to the people of the state of Illinois, who for 30 years placed their confidence in him and whose continuing confidence he repaid by transforming two of this state’s highest constitutional offices into an ongoing and wholly self serving criminal enterprise," the court’s opinion stated today.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, argued Ryan is not entitled to his pension due to his criminal conviction. <\/p>\n

"The very people whose trust Ryan betrayed for personal gain should not now be required to fund his retirement," according to a brief filed by Madigan’s office.
<\/br>
<\/br>Madigan and Thompson rely on different precedents. Ryan’s team cited a case in which Illinois courts let one corrupt former official keep a pension from a local government not linked to his crimes, but he lost pension credit for time he spent working for the government victimized by his wrongdoing.
<\/br>
<\/br>Madigan’s argument was simple. Ryan should lose the whole pension because he was a member of the same state pension system before and after his crimes. He had shifted his pension credits from the nearly six years in county government to the state pension after joining the legislature in 1972.
<\/br>
<\/br>"Through his felonious conduct while in service to the citizens of Illinois, Ryan knowingly placed at risk all of he pension benefits he had earned and to which he otherwise would have been entitled," Madigan’s brief said, adding: "He cannot now complain that forfeiture is unjust or unfair.
<\/br>
<\/br>"No unfairness exists where the General Assembly gave notice to Ryan when he was first elected to that body that future abuses of the public trust in the form of service-related felony convictions would deprive him of his pension."
<\/br>
<\/br>Madigan also attacked the appellate court ruling in Ryan’s favor, saying the arguments by lawmakers in writing pension statutes "cannot be squared with the appellate court’s decision."
<\/br><\/p>\n

Thompson said Madigan’s arguments were misguided.<\/p>\n

In addition to the $5,900 a month, Ryan also would have been
\neligible for back payments worth about $233,000 because pension
\npayments had stopped in September 2006, but he also would have had to
\npay a $78,500 reinstatement fee, said Timothy Blair, who heads the
\npension system.
<\/br>\n<\/p>\n

Ryan received $235,500 from the pension system when his pension was
\nvoided, representing personal contributions he made to the retirement
\nfund over the years, Blair said.
<\/br>\n<\/p>\n

Read Madigan’s argument by clicking here: Download Ryandocumenttwo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read Ryan’s response: Download Ryandocumenetthree<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read Madigan’s counter-arguments: Download Ryandocumentone<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir at 5 a.m.; last updated at 1:53 p.m. with Thompson, Madigan reaction SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court today ruled that imprisoned ex-Gov. George Ryan should not get get any of his state pension because of his federal conviction on political corruption charges. The 6-1 decision means Ryan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}