The Ryan Chronicles

1994: A truck crash kills six children in Wisconsin. Police discover that the driver of the truck has a valid driver's license and speaks only Spanish. This seems odd as the truck driver's license test is given only in English. The state decides to see what's up. Folks in the government say, "Uh, nothing."

2000: Current Secretary of State Jesse White makes a statement saying that at least 175 truckers driving around this country that seem to have bought their licenses between 1990 and 1998. Former Secretary of State George Ryan (1991-1999) claims, "Would I have tolerated it? Hell no, I wouldn't have tolerated it, not in a second." U.S. Attorney Scott Lasser claims that Ryan is not a target of the investigation

Later in 2000: 30 people are charged in "Operation Safe Road," a federal investigation into over $170,000 in bribe money. Apparently it was used to purchase tickets to Ryan fund-raisers. Lasser refuses to tell the press that Ryan is no longer a target or who came up with the name "Operation Safe Road." Dean Bower, one of Ryan's closest advisers and the Inspector General for the Sec. of State under Ryan's tenure is accused of racketeering, mail fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to FBI. Whoops. 1,000 truckers are ordered to retake their trucker driver's license. Of the first 510 that took it, 171 passed. Maybe Killre will have an explanation.

2002: Ryan announces that he will not seek reelection. he will need to spend time with his family. While he can.

2003: Ryan is indicted on 18 federal racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges. A Longtime Chicago hobby of ghost payrolling is discovered. On the payroll are Ryan's daughters, his son-in-law, his housekeeper, and his adopted sister. They admit that they did very little for his campaign.

2005: Ryan goes to court. Gets a lawyer pro-bono by James Thompson's (Ryan's boss while he was lieutenant governor from 1983-1991) and proceeds to prove his innocence. Or his lack of guilt.

2006: Ryan is found guilty on all 18 charges against him. The judge throws out two of the counts due to lack of proof. Ryan appeals and remains free during his second trial. During the second trial 2 jurors are dismissed because they did not reveal a criminal history. The replacement jurors contain one who was previously removed due to discussions he had about the case when talking to his work. (I am fairly sure this was the second trial but if it was the first I stand corrected.)

2007: Verdict is upheld and Ryan is given (regiven?) 6 1/2 years in the slammer. Luckily, he put a moratorium on killing people in prison. It should make him a little more popular. Thompson claims he is taking this one to the Supreme Court.


Dumb F: The trial was a sham and the man is guilty. He should probably be let free or retried but unfortunately for him he did not work in California where it is much easier to get a proper verdict. And I do not mean that snarkily. {O.J. should have been found innocent. I think he was guilty and I think the police planted evidence. Once evidence is tampered with you do not know how far it went hence he has to be let go. Luckily, he was dumb enough to get caught again.}