Former Cook County Commissioner set to be sentenced for extortion in June
Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski attends a meeting of the Cook County Forest Preserve at the County Building.
ASHLEE REZIN/SUN-TIMES FILE PHOTO
ASHLEE REZIN/SUN-TIMES FILE PHOTO
Former Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski admitted 4½ years ago that he’d committed extortion and bribery in criminal schemes involving more than a quarter-million dollars in his county post and his second job as mayor of tiny suburban McCook.
Tobolski pleaded guilty, but he also agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors — so his sentencing was put on hold. In the years that followed, other public officials admitted committing their own crimes with Tobolski, and they’ve gone off to prison.
Now, it’s Tobolski’s turn to learn his fate. During a brief court hearing Thursday, U.S. Chief District Judge Virginia Kendall scheduled Tobolski’s long-awaited sentencing hearing for June 11.
The news comes almost exactly one year after the sentencing of former McCook Police Chief Mario DePasquale, whose attorney called Tobolski “one of the most vile and corrupt people that one could possibly imagine.”
Tobolski took over as mayor of the west suburb after the death of his father in 2007. He admitted in 2020 that he not only shook down a restaurant owner there, but that he’d engaged in other extortion and bribery schemes involving his two offices, agreeing to accept more than $250,000 in payments “as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”
Though Tobolski normally would have been in line for a prison term of 11 to 14 years, his cooperation is expected to earn him a break at sentencing. How much time he serves will be up to Kendall, who inherited Tobolski’s case after the death of U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in 2024.
Tobolski’s sentencing hearing is now set to occur nearly one year after another major corruption sentencing in Kendall’s courtroom.
The judge gave ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke two years in prison on June 24, 2024, citing hundreds of letters of support documenting charitable acts by Burke.
The charges leveled against Tobolski in 2020 were long anticipated and surfaced as a series of aggressive federal corruption investigations were coming into public view. Also charged that year were DePasquale, former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, and Tobolski’s onetime county chief of staff, Patrick Doherty.
Sandoval died later in 2020. But Doherty pleaded guilty in 2022, admitting to multiple corruption schemes that variously involved Tobolski, Sandoval and others. U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Doherty in 2023 to more than five years in prison.
Among other crimes, Doherty admitted he had an unnamed individual install air conditioning units worth $17,795 and give sporting event tickets to Tobolski in return for Tobolski’s support of that person’s business. Doherty said he also had businessman Omar Maani pay Tobolski in return for Tobolski’s support of a company Maani had an interest in.
Maani plays a prominent role in the bribery case against Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III, which is set for trial April 7.
Separately, DePasquale admitted in September 2023 that he’d helped Tobolski shake down the restaurant owner in McCook, collecting $29,700 from the victim. During De- Pasquale’s sentencing on Feb. 21, 2024, defense attorney Jonathan Minkus made the comment about the “vile” Tobolski. He said Tobolski “created in the western suburbs an almost unfathomable Wild West-like atmosphere where everybody was fair game.”
U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo rejected the argument, though. She sentenced De- Pasquale to more than two years in prison and told him, “There’s just no putting the blame on the mayor.”
“You don’t join the corruption,” Bucklo said. “You go and report it.”
Tobolski pleaded guilty, but he also agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors — so his sentencing was put on hold. In the years that followed, other public officials admitted committing their own crimes with Tobolski, and they’ve gone off to prison.
Now, it’s Tobolski’s turn to learn his fate. During a brief court hearing Thursday, U.S. Chief District Judge Virginia Kendall scheduled Tobolski’s long-awaited sentencing hearing for June 11.
The news comes almost exactly one year after the sentencing of former McCook Police Chief Mario DePasquale, whose attorney called Tobolski “one of the most vile and corrupt people that one could possibly imagine.”
Tobolski took over as mayor of the west suburb after the death of his father in 2007. He admitted in 2020 that he not only shook down a restaurant owner there, but that he’d engaged in other extortion and bribery schemes involving his two offices, agreeing to accept more than $250,000 in payments “as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”
Though Tobolski normally would have been in line for a prison term of 11 to 14 years, his cooperation is expected to earn him a break at sentencing. How much time he serves will be up to Kendall, who inherited Tobolski’s case after the death of U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in 2024.
Tobolski’s sentencing hearing is now set to occur nearly one year after another major corruption sentencing in Kendall’s courtroom.
The judge gave ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke two years in prison on June 24, 2024, citing hundreds of letters of support documenting charitable acts by Burke.
The charges leveled against Tobolski in 2020 were long anticipated and surfaced as a series of aggressive federal corruption investigations were coming into public view. Also charged that year were DePasquale, former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, and Tobolski’s onetime county chief of staff, Patrick Doherty.
Sandoval died later in 2020. But Doherty pleaded guilty in 2022, admitting to multiple corruption schemes that variously involved Tobolski, Sandoval and others. U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Doherty in 2023 to more than five years in prison.
Among other crimes, Doherty admitted he had an unnamed individual install air conditioning units worth $17,795 and give sporting event tickets to Tobolski in return for Tobolski’s support of that person’s business. Doherty said he also had businessman Omar Maani pay Tobolski in return for Tobolski’s support of a company Maani had an interest in.
Maani plays a prominent role in the bribery case against Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III, which is set for trial April 7.
Separately, DePasquale admitted in September 2023 that he’d helped Tobolski shake down the restaurant owner in McCook, collecting $29,700 from the victim. During De- Pasquale’s sentencing on Feb. 21, 2024, defense attorney Jonathan Minkus made the comment about the “vile” Tobolski. He said Tobolski “created in the western suburbs an almost unfathomable Wild West-like atmosphere where everybody was fair game.”
U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo rejected the argument, though. She sentenced De- Pasquale to more than two years in prison and told him, “There’s just no putting the blame on the mayor.”
“You don’t join the corruption,” Bucklo said. “You go and report it.”