By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting $250,000 in bribes over several years to protect the state’s red-light camera industry while some lawmakers at the statehouse want to ban the cameras altogether.
Sandoval apologized afterward.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions,” Sandoval told reporters in Chicago on Tuesday. “I take full responsibility. And I apologize to the people of Illinois and most importantly to the constituents that I have served over the last 17 years.”
According to details contained in the plea agreement, Sandoval said he wanted to be the red-light camera company’s “protector” and worked with a cooperating witness employed by an unnamed red-light camera company and an unnamed co-conspirator in the exchange of money “as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”
From 2016 through September 2019, Sandoval took bribes in exchange for “continued support for the operation of red-light cameras in the State of Illinois.”
The plea agreement lays out several instances of the former senator taking bribes. In August 2018, Sandoval met the cooperating witness at a restaurant and accepted $15,000 in cash. By September 2019, the plea agreement said Sandoval had accepted about $70,000 in “protection” money.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that if Sandoval knows about more corruption, he should make it known.
“If there are others that are responsible, others that he’s aware of that have committed wrongdoing, they should be found out, they should be charged and they should be convicted,” the governor said.
The plea agreement between prosecutors and Sandoval said the former senator had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. It also said there were others involved in criminal activity.
State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, said Illinois lawmakers need to take ethics and lobbying reforms seriously.
“There’s another task force, another commission – that’s just a code phrase of ‘we’re not going to get anything done of substance,’ ” McSweeney said.
The Illinois Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reforms next meets on Jan. 30. The commission is set to deliver a report with recommendations by March 31. Republicans have said several reforms measures can be passed and implemented without having to wait for the commission’s report.
McSweeney filed a bill that he said would prohibit non-home rule communities from installing red-light cameras. Chicago and most municipalities with more than 25,000 residents already have home-rule authority and wouldn’t be affected if the bill were to become law.
“I’m going to push that bill, it’s House Bill 322,” McSweeney said. “Sandoval killed it in 2015. We know why now. This is a corrupt program. It needs to end in the state of Illinois.”
In pleading guilty, Sandoval acknowledged he used his power to protect the red-light camera industry by killing bills in the Senate.
McSweeney’s bill this year has bipartisan support, but has yet to advance out of the House Rules Committee.
Pritzker left the issue of how to deal with red-light cameras to the state legislature.
“But it’s clear that really almost anything can be corrupted by somebody who wants to be corrupt so it’s also a question about who is implementing these laws,” Pritzker said.
Sandoval agreed to pay $72,441 restitution to the U.S. Treasury. He will get credit for more than $21,000 the federal government seized from him in 2019.
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