Illinois Supreme Court says imprisoned former Gov. Ryan not entitled to partial pension

more images

more images

High court dashes Ryan hopes of salvaging pension

CHICAGO — The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday dashed former Gov. George Ryan’s hopes of salvaging at least part of his state pension, saying his racketeering and fraud conviction made him ineligible for any of the money.

The court said in a 6-1 decision that state law “plainly mandates that none of the benefits provided for under the system shall be paid to Ryan.”

“The forfeiture, in other words, is total,” said the 23-page decision written by Justice Bob Thomas. “Ryan gets nothing.”

“As the victims of Ryan’s crimes, the taxpayers of the State of Illinois are under no obligation now to fund his retirement,” the decision said.

Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke dissented, saying she understood “the very human impulse to want to punish Ryan for his wrongdoings by depriving him of all of his pension benefits.” But she said that in her view, the majority broke with a previous decision in a similar but unrelated case, and as “an unjustified departure from precedent I cannot join it.”

The high court’s decision overturned an Illinois Appellate Court ruling that would have left the former governor with at least a partial pension.

After his conviction in April 2006, the General Assembly Retirement System suspended Ryan’s pension of $197,037 a year. Ryan’s attorneys argued that he should get a partial pension of $60,000 a year, earned while he served as a member of the state House and as Illinois lieutenant governor.

Ryan was not convicted of engaging in any wrongdoing while in those offices.

The former governor, who will be 76 on Wednesday, is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence at the federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind. He is expected to be released in July 2013, but Ryan’s attorney, former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson, and wife, Lura Lynn, have said they will ask President Barack Obama to release him early because she is ill and needs him home.

Thompson said Friday in a telephone interview the decision was “very disappointing” but there appeared to be nothing more that could be done to secure a pension for him.

“This is the end,” Thompson said. “I agree with Justice Burke that they’ve changed the law.”

At his tumultuous six-month trial, Ryan was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements to the FBI when he was secretary of state and later governor from 1999 to 2003.

Prosecutors presented evidence that thousands of dollars in bribes paid in exchange for commercial driver’s licenses ended up in Ryan’s campaign fund. They also claimed that when state investigators from the office of the Secretary of State’s inspector general began to look into the payoffs and the campaign fund, Ryan had his aides dismantle the inspector general’s office.

Ryan also used state employees and taxpayer money to operate his campaigns while steering lucrative state contracts to cronies who showered him with gifts, prosecutors claimed. Ryan’s attorneys maintained that he had violated no laws.