Blagojevich insider, key witness, gets 5 1/2 years in prison
By Annie Sweeney Tribune reporter
11:52 a.m. CDT, July 19, 2012
Stuart Levine, the former political insider who masterminded illegal backroom deals before turning government informant to help take down the Blagojevich administration, was sentenced to about 5 ˝ years today in prison.
Levine, 66, apologized before the sentence was handed down. “I wish to express my deep regret to the people of the state of Illinois," he said. [Translation - I am sorry I got caught]
He choked up when he thanked his children for their “continued love, which has sustained me.”
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said she thought long and hard before agreeing to sentence Levine to the 67-month prison term called for under his plea agreement with prosecutors.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, he would have faced up to life in prison but his extraordinary cooperation led to the sharply reduced sentence. [I suspect if he had not been a government bureaucrat he would have gotten life, because as we all know in the government courts government bureaucrats get special treatment!]
St. Eve said she was persuaded that Levine was a different person from the witness who testified in 2008 at the trial of Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, saying his arrogance and egotism were evident then.
In addition to his testimony at the trials of Blagojevich advisor Antoin Rezko and Springfield power broker William Cellini, Levine played a critical role in helping the government unravel the corruption inside former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration, his attorney has said.
For that, the government agreed to the reduced prison sentence after Levine’s guilty plea in 2006. In recent court documents, prosecutors called him one of the most valuable insiders to work undercover in a public corruption case in Chicago in the last 30 years.
Levine, a longtime Republican fundraiser reappointed to state boards by Blagojevich, pleaded guilty to one count each of mail fraud and money laundering. He admitted to scheming to squeeze millions of dollars from firms seeking state business with the help of Blagojevich top supporters.
On the stand during the trials of Rezko and Cellini, the heavyset Levine cut an odd figure — speaking nervously at times and in a high-pitched voice, occasionally looking confused.
His testimony about his own sordid past was as disturbing as it was captivating.
Levine, 66, described how he used his position as executor of a close friend's will to cheat its beneficiaries, including a deaf daughter, out of $2 million. Levine then sent surviving relatives a $1 million bill for his executor services.
He also described using hard drugs over three decades. In the early 2000s, he said he would snort 10 “lines” of a powdered mix of crystal methamphetamine and ketamine — sometimes at binge parties he flew to by private jet.
Levine, who occasionally seemed disoriented on the witness stand, also told jurors that he sometimes had difficulty with his memory and conceded it may have been due to decades of drug abuse.
At the trials, defense attorneys devoted days to tearing at Levine's credibility, calling him a habitual liar and a lifelong crook, portrayals Levine barely challenged. Cellini's attorney, Dan Webb, told jurors Levine was “a wack job.”