Five people were added to the jury Thursday. Along with the
three jurors who were seated Wednesday, eight members of the
jury are now in place.
The pace of prospective juror questioning accelerated from 36
minutes per person on Wednesday to 21 minutes by midday
Thursday, but prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to Judge
John Robert Blakey's suggestion that they revise their estimates
for the length of the trial.
Blakey said Thursday that there was no way opening arguments
would begin next Tuesday, after he had said Wednesday that the
court’s “aspiration” was for opening arguments to begin Tuesday.
Madigan is facing 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and
official misconduct.
Reflecting on Madigan's tenure, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy,
D-Chicago, told The Center Square that people in Madigan’s
office found ways to harass her when he was speaker.
“On more than one occasion there were actually inquiries made
that they presented as innocent but not things that are normal,”
Cassidy recalled.
The trial of Madigan and co-defendant Michael McClain is being
held in Chicago, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois.
McClain worked as a consultant and lobbyist after serving in the
Illinois House. Cassidy said she generally avoided interacting
with McClain.
“He did try to befriend me, I guess is the way to put it. I
remember getting a handwritten note and a personal check from
him, maybe in my first campaign, where he talked about what a
promising leader I appeared to be or something to that effect,
but that ended pretty quickly. From the very start, I was very
clearly not somebody that was going to be controlled,” Cassidy
said.
Jury selection for United States of America v. Madigan et al is
scheduled to resume Friday morning in Courtroom 1203. |
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