CHICAGO — A government attorney told jurors Monday at Rod Blagojevich’s corruption retrial that the former Illinois governor acted like a corrupt traffic cop pressing a vulnerable driver for a bribe to let them avoid a speeding ticket.
“It doesn’t matter if the driver pays or not,” prosecutor Chris Niewoehner told the newly chosen jury during opening statements. “The policeman has made a criminal demand and committed a crime. He did it because he had power. . . . Blagojevich had the power.”
That anecdote appeared to be an attempt by prosecutors to spell out Blagojevich’s alleged crimes more clearly than at the first trial, which ended with mostly deadlocked jurors — many of whom complained the case was too scattershot and too hard to understand.
Niewoehner began by telling jurors that Blagojevich had abandoned the sense of duty he should have felt toward his constituents.
“The people of Illinois put their trust in him to look out for them, but he sold out that trust,” Niewoehner said. “Instead of doing what was best for the people of Illinois — he decided to use his power to do what was best for one person — himself.”
When attorney Aaron Goldstein took the floor to deliver the opening for the defense, though, he told jurors all the government evidence that will presented in the coming weeks won’t amount to anything.
“You will see the lengths to which they will go to get this man. . . . And you will still be left with nothing,” he told jurors. “You will find yourself wanting more, and time after time, you will get nothing.”
Before opening statements, attorneys and a judge made the final selection of the 12 jurors and six alternates. They include a teacher, a librarian and a woman whose husband once volunteered for one of Blagojevich’s campaigns.
Blagojevich’s first trial last summer ended with jurors deadlocked on all but one count. This time, Blagojevich, 54, faces 20 charges — from attempted extortion of a children’s hospital executive to conspiracy to commit bribery in a bid to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat in exchange for campaign cash or a well-paying job.
If convicted on all counts, Blagojevich would face a maximum prison term of 350 years — though guidelines would dictate he get far less. He already faces five years for his conviction at the first trial on a charge of lying to the FBI.
