Road-builder in emotional cross-exam with defense attorney over pressure from Blagojevich

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Blagojevich witness clashes with attorney

CHICAGO — A leader of the Illinois road-building industry clashed with one of Rod Blagojevich’s defense attorneys Wednesday, saying the former governor had pressured him over and over to come up with campaign contributions.

“You never felt pressure from Governor Blagojevich, did you?” defense attorney Aaron Goldstein asked Gerald Krozel, who was being cross-examined at the former governor’s federal corruption trial.

“I sure did,” Krozel blurted in a loud voice. “When someone will ask you continuously about money you feel pressure.”

Goldstein asked Krozel about his testimony that he did not tell Blagojevich that he wouldn’t raise funds for him because he feared the governor would cancel a $6 billion tollway program needed by the state’s road-building industry in fall 2008 when the economy was floundering.

“You never felt there was any connection, did you?” Goldstein asked.

“It was obvious,” Krozel shot back.

“It was obvious — did he (Blagojevich) say that?” Goldstein asked.

Krozel said it was clear “when he talked to me about fundraising and tells me how happy I should be about the tollway program.”

Goldstein then asked whether Krozel felt pressure about being on the witness stand. There was a long pause.

“I don’t feel relaxed,” said the 70-year-old Krozel, who frequently held his forehead with both hands and stared at the floor of the witness stand. The answer brought laughter from some jurors and many spectators in Judge James B. Zagel’s courtroom.

Goldstein prodded Krozel about the morning of Dec. 9, 2008, when FBI agents arrived at his door 15 minutes after Blagojevich’s arrest on corruption charges. The attorney noted that Krozel had told the agents at that time that he hadn’t felt pressure from the governor.

“I wanted to get them out of my home; I was afraid they were going to put me in jail,” Krozel said.

Blagojevich, 53, has pleaded not guilty to scheming to get a high-paying job or other financial benefit in exchange for the appointment to the U.S. Senate seat President Barack Obama left to move to the White House. He also has pleaded not guilty to plotting to launch a racketeering operation that included pressuring businessmen for hefty campaign contributions.

His brother, businessman Robert Blagojevich, 54, of Nashville, Tenn., has pleaded not guilty to taking part in the alleged scheme concerning the Senate seat and the governor’s alleged efforts to squeeze campaign money out of business executives.

Goldstein focused on a Sept. 18, 2008, meeting in the Friends of Blagojevich campaign office. Krozel had testified that at the meeting the governor mixed conversation about campaign financing and a new road-building program for the state’s toll roads.

He testified that Blagojevich said he was about to announce a program worth under $2 billion but wanted to expand it to a $6 billion program that would be more beneficial for the industry.

But Krozel said Blagojevich pushed him to raise substantial campaign funds before Jan. 1, 2009, when a new ethics law was to take effect that would bar road-builders with state contracts from making contributions to the governor.

On an FBI wiretap tape played in court, Blagojevich is heard telling Krozel that “the good news for you guys and the bad news for us … we won’t be able to bully you guys” anymore. Krozel said the comment referred to the new ethics law.

Prosecutors also presented testimony aimed at supporting their claim that now-jailed real estate developer Tony Rezko funneled money to the governor through his wife.

Real estate developer Sean Conlon testified that when a buyer, Brian Hynes, bought two units of a building on Chicago’s West Lake Street from him, the buyer in each case added Patti Blagojevich’s name and that of her company, River Realty, to the contract.

The price of one unit was raised from $600,000 to $640,000 to cover the brokerage fee and the price of the other was raised from $700,000 to $720,000, Conlon testified.

But the name of the broker was later changed from River Realty to Rezmar Inc., the real estate development firm of Blagojevich fundraiser Rezko, Conlon testified.

The story was similar to earlier testimony that Patti Blagojevich had received a brokerage commission on another property even though the real estate agent who sold it didn’t know her.

Patti Blagojevich has been charged with no wrongdoing in the case.