ties that bind, The

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Mar/Apr 2001 by Jackson, David

FEATURES

Friendships between criminals, local police cause feds to back off

A three-part Tribune series revealed ties of friendship and money between crime figures and certain Chicago police officials, and showed the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office scaled back an investigation into those relationships for fear of alienating the police department.

To expose the intricate ties between crime figures and police, the Tribune examined internal files from eight law enforcement agencies, more than 300 court files, and land and corporate records stretching from Cook County to the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Federal authorities responded to the Oct. 22-24 newspaper series by launching a criminal investigation to determine whether any federal agents leaked information to the reporter.

Investigators from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General have so far questioned four IRS agents to determine if they provided information to the Tribune, according to a person familiar with the probe. The Treasury Department's criminal investigation is ongoing.

The story began when projects editor Robert Blau suggested that we examine the unsolved killing of Amoco Oil Co. executive Charles Merriam, who was gunned down in the foyer of his suburban home in 1987. Merriam came from a family of civic leaders and his homicide generated headlines for days and continued to roil local law enforcement circles. Police chief Matt Rodriguez was forced to resign in 1997 shortly after he acknowledged his friendship with a potential suspect in the Merriam case - a convicted felon named Frank Milito. Rodriguez's abrupt resignation left unanswered questions about the extent of his ties to Milito, and about the links between other Chicago police officials and crime figures.

While those questions launched the Tribune's investigation, another reporting goal soon emerged: to help solve the Merriam killing and two other linked homicides by presenting new facts about the cases. Only time will tell if the series met that mark.

Wise guy ways When I initially approached law enforcement officials, doors slammed shut and, in some cases, authorities were notified that a reporter was asking questions. The 13-year-old Merriam homicide was still an open case, I was told repeatedly.

I began a sweeping search of public records on every person who played a role in the case - whether they were witness or suspect, crime figure or untainted cop. I pieced together personal histories by checking every division of the local and federal courts, querying online databases and sorting through a variety of federal and local records.

In two cases I built family histories from:

* early 20th Century census sheets;

*land and building records;

* old phonebooks and criss-cross directories held by two local historical libraries;

* birth, death and marriage records;

* immigration records;

* newspaper clippings;

* and law enforcement records.

These paper and electronic sources yielded critical details that put lives in context and prompted questions that made interviews fruitful. The records also led me back to legal and law enforcement sources who began to offer hints and limited details. My questions earned the grudging respect of people who eventually provided records and internal files, and my circle of sources expanded with each file I obtained.

The records and interviews revealed previously unknown financial and personal ties between former Superintendent Rodriguez and Milito, a North Side businessman who served prison time for tax fraud and who invested with a Chicago mob boss. Milito took thenSuperintendent Rodriguez on numerous overseas vacations, hired two of Rodriguez's family members when they needed money, donated funds to a police party held in Rodriguez's honor and loaned Rodriguez the use of a condo as an afternoon getaway, among other favors.

Milito's personal and financial relationships with Rodriguez and other Chicago and Cook County sheriff's police officials cast a shadow over the ill-starred Merriam murder probe. Overseen by a friend of Rodriguez on the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department, the Merriam homicide investigation bogged down amid weeks-long delays in processing the crime scene and the loss of evidence, internal law enforcement records showed. At least one witness was hesitant to cooperate because Milito was a friend of Chicago's police chief, and some investigators privately questioned the integrity of the probe.

The details on Rodriguez and Milito led to records and interviews that revealed other ties between Chicago police officials and criminals. In one case, a cluttered northwest side tailor shop was a hangout for crime figures and police - including Rodriguez. In another case, a crime syndicate pornographer hired tactical officers to work security at his adult bookstores. These officers, who remain on the force, were investigated for the million-dollar rip-off of a drug courier.

Those relationships apparently violated a police rule that forbids officers from associating or fraternizing with criminals, but the rule was honored only in the breach. Even when confronted with disturbing details of the relationship between Rodriguez and Milito, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office reined in investigators for fear of alienating the Chicago Police Department, records and interviews showed. Then-- U.S. Attorney James B. Burns turned down a request by prosecutors to include Rodriguez in a grand jury probe of police corruption, a Justice Department memo showed. It was not until 1998, three months after Rodriguez had resigned, that federal agents visited the former police chief at his home and asked specific questions about the extent of his financial ties to Milito.